Here we are, having finished our first full week of real summer. It almost makes me nervous — getting to the summer solstice seems to drag on, but once it hits, bam! Summer’s gone.
Every fall and winter I begin to make a mental list of the things I am going to get done “next summer:” Paint my house. Camp. Golf more. Swim with the kids. Take a weekend getaway. Grill more. Hike more. Plant a garden. By the end of June I’m recalling that list and thinking, “Crap. Will I get any of it done?”
I have yet to paint my house (it desperately needs it), we haven’t camped in four years and I am well into my third summer of not swinging my clubs. We haven’t hit the pool once, although my daughter did go swimming at a friends house and both kids spent a week at camp, much of it in the pool. No on the weekend getaway and hiking, although we have fired up the grill quite a bit. Thanks to a very wet spring I didn’t get my garden in until mid-June, and by then I just went with the bare essentials (tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber and carrots).
When I think of the longer summer days I always believe I’ll have more time to get more done. Then I get all whiny and think, “Why can’t I do this?” And then something happens to remind me that those chores I didn’t get done are really quite small in the grand scheme of things.
Talking with people at the BBQ Roundup about their summer days, I met plenty of people who are grateful for the longer days so they could have more daylight hours to clean up after the flood. Many were without electricity — some without homes — and relied on the sunlight to get work done. One man, Mike Shaffer, was left homeless by the flood — his house is not salvageable. He told me summer always gives him a better attitude. Even this year? “Especially this year.”
Yeah, Mike. Me, too.
