Tag: Summer

  • Good Gawd, It’s Hot Today

    It’s pretty hot in New York today; 93. Tomorrow it’s going to be even hotter; possibly over 100 degrees. And don’t get me started on the humidity and the dew point! It’s hot, sticky, and swampy outside. And though July and August can feel pretty oppressive around here, the temperature rarely gets close to 100. So, when it does that hot and awful, it can be dangerous for people who aren’t used to it.

    This morning, as the wife and I were having our coffee and watching the local news, and the weatherman was telling us again at how awful and dangerous it was going to be today, I pointed out that back in Texas, where we grew up, 93 degrees with a 70% dew point in late June wouldn’t cause anyone any concern. But 93 in New York is like 103 in Texas, the wife pointed out.

    True.

    Writing on this blog, I haven’t hidden how much I hate hot weather. That I completely blame on growing up in Texas. But I will say this; that I know how to handle the heat. First of all, you just don’t go outside. If you do go outside, make sure you get in your car, preferable parked in the shade, crank up the air conditioning in the car, and drive some place that will also have air conditioning. The worst part will be parking, and then crossing the parking lot to get to that building that has air conditioning. And make sure you have a hat, and light clothes. But if you have to wear jeans, it’ll be fine, you won’t be outdoors that long.

    I’m not joking when I say this; you just don’t go outside during the hottest part of the day. That’s why there are siestas. You do stuff in the morning, and you do stuff at night; both are times of day when it not THAT hot out.

    See, it’s not that hard. Provided that you have air conditioning.

    If you don’t have an A/C, then it’s very dangerous and you need to be careful and hydrated.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Club World Cup, Mowing Grass, and JAWS

    (When you’re on a holiday…)

    Having trouble getting into it. That pretty much sums up my attitude with the Club World Cup. Sure, you could say that some of the matches have been rather uneven, and you could also argue that the turn out for these matches hasn’t been the best. (Scores of empty seats.) But I’m trying to hang with it. I have watched as much as I can, and even made the kid sit with me. But, I just can’t get over the fact that there isn’t any excitement or passion for this thing. I want to say that this is due to the Group Stage, and that when we get to the Knock Out Round, things will pick up. I sure do hope so. With that having been said, I will put my money on Bayern Munich. Just a feeling and nothing more, but it’s what I am going with.

    When I was in junior high and high school, I was responsible for mowing the yard, both front and back. It’s how I earned some of my allowance, and I had it down to where I could knock it out in a half hour, so it didn’t eat into my weekends. So, it was never a chore I dreaded, as it was very manageable. This morning as I was sitting in the car, doing the Alt Side Parking, The City Park service was out mowing the grass in the local park and sidewalks, and just at the right moment, the smell of cut grass wafted and waifed into my car. Smells can trigger strong memories like nothing else, and that was what came over me. It was if I could feel the rumble and rattle of the lawnmowers handlebar as I pushed it across our lawn. The speed at which I could accomplish the pattern I followed, creating the nice orderly lines in the grass. It made me miss the chore a little, and even made want to own a home just so I could mow that yard.

    JAWS is 50 this year. What a great movie. I don’t need to tell you that. About a million other people can tell you why much better than I could. I will just say this; it’s my favorite Summer movie – not only is it a Summer Blockbuster, but it actually takes place in Summer. And the mother, Mrs Kintner played by Lee Fierro, who loses her kid; she’s the linchpin of the whole movie. Her two scenes brought a level of realism and emotional weight to the movie, and if she didn’t nail it, then the story never would have worked. Just sayin’…

  • The Bored Days of Summer (Unedited)

    We got three days into Summer Vacation, and the kid announced that she was bored.

    “There’s nothing to do”

    “No one to talk to”

    “Nothing to watch”

    “Nothing to read”

    “Nothing to listen to”

    I think you get the idea.

    Not surprised to hear her say this. All kids get bored when they have too much time on their hands. When the get too much freedom, it becomes repressive. As I am the stay at home dad, I get the brunt of the kid’s complaints, and she looks to me to solve this problem of hers.

    My first reaction was to tell her that it’s not my job to eliminate her boredom.

    But as soon as I said that, it dawned on me that it really is my job to end her boredom. Look, if I don’t get involved then she will want to zombie out on the iPad, and that is the worst thing that could happen.

    I’m not saying that she won’t get on the iPad this Summer, but I want to limit that as much as possible.

    Now, I don’t want to create mindless things for her to do, such as dumping a bunch of chores on her. There is no joy or magical memories that come from that. No, what I want to do is encourage healthy habits while also spending time together. (She will help me paint the livingroom this Summer, so she does have one huge chore, but we’ve been talking about that for months now.) I want her to stay active, so we are going to go running, and work on her soccer skills. I also want to keep her reading up, so we need to set time aside for that. She’s brought up that she wants to go to a museum, so that will take care of the art side of things. And I want to encourage her to think about the food she wants to learn how to make, and then we can work on recipe testing.

    IN the end, what I know to be true is that you only get to have so many Summers as a kid. When the days are hot but not too hot, and the Summer feels like it stretches on forever. In two or three years, I really won’t see her over the Summer, as she’ll be involved in something, or will be hanging out with her friends. Until then, I want to make sure she has some memories of enjoying time with her dad. Doing stupid stuff while trying to avoid being bored.

  • The Air Conditioners

    The Air Conditioners

    The Summer heat is coming. It’s supposed to be 80 today, 85 on Wednesday, and 90 on Thursday. And then there is also the humidity that will come along as well. The hot, sticky, and smelly New York Summer is just around the corner.

    We are ready for it.

    We’ve had our A/C’s in the windows since early May. Those machines have been cleaned from top to bottom, and we even tested them on a day that was a very comfortable 80. It’s just a matter of time before we shut the windows, and turn them on.

    And when those windows get shut, they won’t open back up until September. It is like battening the hatches around here. The apartment will become this self-contained island of artificial air. It’s like being in a submarine, or a spaceship.

    When I was a kid growing up in Texas, our house had central A/C, as do almost all houses down there. It seems like the air ran non-stop, but I know that’s not true. There is a specific sound from my childhood that takes me back, and it’s the sound of the A/C unit clicking on, and the slow drone of the air moving through the vents. I can almost touch that sounds, it’s so tactile to me. I can feel that air blowing on me as a little kid playing in my room.

    Having lived in Texas, there really is a line of demarcation for Texans. There are the Texans like lived in the state before air conditioning, and then there are the Texans who lived with air conditioning. If you’ve experienced a Texas Summer, then you know that the Pre-A/C Texans were pretty tough people.

  • Summer Summer Summer

    My kid has started counting down the days until Summer vacation. (She has 17 days left.) Schools about to be out forever, and the sweaters and coats are being packed away for another season. She is talking about swimming and vacations, and going to the beach all the time now. The start of Summer is so close, yet still far away for her, but the idea of Summer seems infinite – long hot days, and then cool evenings sitting on the couch in air conditioning.

    I try not plan too much of her Summer. We’ll do some trips to museums, and we’ll hit up the local community pool. The kid has told me that she wants to work on her soccer skills, and I think I can convince her to go hiking. What I would really like to do is put her to work on a few home improvement projects around here. I would like to paint the living room, and I think I could make that a life lesson that she needs to learn.

    You know, I enjoyed my time as a kid, and to be honest, if I had a choice of going back and being a kid again, I would not take it. I like being an adult. BUT! If there is one feeling I could relive one more time, it would be that feeling on the last day of school, when the bell rings for the final time, and you are free to go forth on your Summer vacation. That felling of weight being lifted, of freedom, excitement, possibility… That! If I could just grasp that feeling once more.

    I do get the next best thing, which is seeing my daughter live it.