August is the month of death.

I heard an ad for LegalZoom on the radio yesterday that said that August "is Make-A-Will-Month."

Seems a little morbid, doesn't it? "Hey, you! You playing with the kids in the yard! You with a box of hamburgers ready to grill, dance music on the speaker, guests on the way, pitchers of margaritas! You enjoying your life in the summer! GO MAKE A WILL BECAUSE YOU ARE GOING TO DIE."

We all should have a will, yes, and we're all going to die sometime, but this kind of puts a shroud over the proceedings, doesn't it?

Who decides these things anyway? We have three calendars in the house and none of them say it's Make-A-Will Month. Maybe if I had a complimentary calendar from a law firm it would say that, but ours are from the church (sponsored by a funeral parlor), Boys Town, and a Realtor. The funeral parlor might have wanted to slip MAW Month on---or maybe Buy-A-Casket Month---but perhaps the church wouldn't let them.

The totally unverified (and unverifiable) Holiday Insights site tells us that August is also:

• Admit You're Happy Month
• Family Fun Month
• National Catfish Month
• National Eye Exam Month
• National Golf Month
• Peach Month
• Romance Awareness Month
• Water Quality Month
• National Picnic Month

Who makes this stuff up? I'm sure the Peach Growers' Association or whatever they're called is behind Peach Month, and I could see Congress voting for Water Quality Month or Eye Exam Month or even National Picnic Month. But Romance Awareness Month? We need a month for this? Admit You're Happy Month? I don't even know what that means.

I guess they figure August is as good as any for Make-A-Will Month. If you're together with the kids just before they leave for school, maybe you will think about your will. You wouldn't want to in December; much as the winter's start makes us think about Death, the lawyers would not want to try to compete with St. Nick. January could be good, though. Spring would be a terrible time for Make-A-Will Month.

No, I'm thinking it should have been January. You can have a provision in the will that the credit cards from Christmas should be paid out of the estate. So if you die, you don't have to worry about them!