It’s easy to focus on the negatives of Labor Day Weekend. Pools and parks close for the year. The days are getting alarmingly short. If you are a kid, you’re probably already back in school or pretty close to it. Even Labor Day barbeques tend to lack the joie de vivre of their Memorial Day cousins. But there’s no reason to dwell on that stuff. Seriously, sweatshirts and Elliot Smith albums can wait for a few more weeks. Friday night, high school football is back. Spotobe has compiled the Friday night and Saturday afternoon schedules for every week of the season, so if you need directions to an away game at any time this year, come back and visit us. Friday is also the first day of the Long’s Park Art & Craft Festival in Lancaster, which is one of the biggest events of its kind in the country. I’ve never been, but people tell me that it is absolutely massive. The event runs through Monday, so you have all weekend to check it out. The Senators also open their final series of the season. It appears as though the Sens are going to fall a little bit short of the Eastern League Playoffs, but they just clinched their first winning season since 2002, which is a step in the right direction. Saturday, Penn State opens its schedule against Coastal Carolina, which is not close enough to here to be on the calendar, but is close enough to my heart to be on the Spotoblog. I’ll be there. With bells on. Or a white t-shirt. One of the two. Kipona also starts on Saturday, and you can find the full schedule of events for each day on the calendar. There are two more noteworthy festivals on Saturday as well, the annual Folk Festival at Moon Dancer Winery and the McLain Celtic Festival at the historic Two Mile House. On a weekend dominated by sports and festivals, I think the Public Astronomical Observation looks like something a little bit different. Sunday, Kipona, Long’s Park and the Folk Festival all continue. The Kipona Grand Fireworks Display, is Sunday night. There are also fireworks in Boiling Springs. More fireworks Monday, this time in York. Kipona and Long’s Park wrap up during the day, and you can also tour Shoaf’s Mill at Little Buffalo State Park. I’ve done it, and it’s worth seeing. You can get some corn meal to make cornbread. Friday, I’ll be out to eat somewhere, but I won’t be out late because I’ve got to get up super early to head to Happy Valley. I’ll check out Kipona Sunday or Monday and hopefully catch at least one of the fireworks displays. Enjoy the long weekend and have fun kids.

After yesterday’s treatise on the Perry County Fair, I’m going to keep this short. The fair actually continues through Saturday night, so if you’d like to go and check it out yourself, go for it. Friday night, the Senator’s open their next-to-last home series of the season. That is absolutely unbelievable to me. Where has this summer gone? Before you know it we’ll all be turning in our red and black ball caps for oversize chocolate and white jerseys. Absolutely amazing. From a musical standpoint, Gullifty’s will be hosting August Assault Vol. 2, which should be an, er, raucous affair. Also, Farewell Flight, a local band that appears to be going places, is throwing an album release party at Champion Ship in support of their full-length debut “Sound. Color. Motion.” I’ll try to review it sometime soon. Icelandic band Parachutes will be at der Maennerchor Friday night, as well. They sound a lot like Sigur Rós. I guess that’s a good thing (if you say you don’t like Sigur Rós, a group of mopey, sweater wearing enforcers from the department of indie music comes to your door and revokes your license to carry poorly concealed smugness), but I’m getting a bit worn down by this movement toward tonal, ethereal music. It’s about run its course. Saturday, the Yorkfest Arts Festival opens in downtown York. It is York County’s biggest outdoor art festival, and it runs through Sunday. If your zip code is between 17000-17999 (that would presumably be most of you) you can also get a nice discount on Renaissance Faire tickets all weekend. With the discount, adult tickets are only $19.95. Plus it’s Pirates weekend! If you’re looking to stay closer to Harrisburg, it’s Dog Days (the furry things, not hot days in August) at Ashcombe nursery, there is a Madden ’09 tournament at The Coliseum and the Central Penn Piranha have a home game. Sunday, there’s more Yorkfest, more Renaissance Faire and more baseball. Ski Roundtop is also holding an open house for its ropes course, and you can use selected high elements, the climbing walls and the zip line for one low price. Sunday night, Rascal Flatts and Taylor Swift will invade Giant Center. I don’t get Rascal Flatts, but whatever. Frankly, I still have no idea what I’ll be up to this weekend, but I hope you all find something to keep you entertained. Have fun kids.

Before I sneak out of town again to the County of Elk, I wanted to make sure ya'll know what's going on this weekend, heat or no heat. Spend the day poolside, and then try one of these:

• My favorite local dance band, The Impact Band, is at Shakey's tonight. Stop in, dance, enjoy.
• If you can bear the scorching sun , the Senators are at home. Check the schedule and enjoy a Spot Dog while you're there. Bring sunscreen!
• Harrisburg's soccer team, the City Islanders, also play tonight at 7:05 p.m.
• Hide in the air conditioning and enjoy some film culture at Midtown Cinema. 
• If movies sound right, Side Street Cinema kicks off tomorrow at 9 p.m.
• Sunday is the Capital Area Greenbelt's 20 mile Tour de Belt bicycle tour- you can still sign up.
• Harrisburg Shakespeare Festival's Free Shakespeare in the Park features Love's Labour's Lost.