Tag: #Summer

  • Summer Break is Over

    Before I had a kid, and was a young adult running around New York City, the framework dates for Summer were simple; It lasted from Memorial Day to Labor Day. After Memorial Day, it felt like the City emptied out, and then the day after Labor Day, the City filled back up. And that was how I thought of Summer in those days.

    After having a kid, “Summer” returned to the definition it had when I was a child; Summer was from when school ended, to when school started up again. It didn’t fit neatly into the Memorial/Labor Day bookends, because the school bookends feel correct.

    Which brings me to say that Summer is over as the kid is back in school.

    And this was an okay Summer. Nothing amazing, but still fun. We did some road trips as a family, visiting Vermont and West Virginia. The kid went to her sleep away camp, which allowed all of us to enjoy a break from each other, and as enjoy reuniting as a family again.

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    (Here I am about to go four-wheelin’ in Vermont.)

    Creatively, I took a break this Summer. I kept up the journal, but decided that I should have a break from the blog, reviews, and fiction. I thought it best to catch up on reading, and start thinking about what I want to accomplish for the last half of the year. I did work a little on a novel, but it was more an exercise of fun, and not meant to be anything more than that.

    So, here I sit, writing a blog on the couch, a stack of books on the end table, and a crap ton of short stories clogging up my Inbox that need to be read and possibly reviewed. Then there are the stories I need to finish writing, and then proceed to submit to all the lit journals across the internets.

    Which leads me to say, I am looking forward to Autumn!

  • ODDS and ENDS: End of Summer, Banana Ball, and Monday

    (Nothing really matters, anyone can see…)

    Well, I know the season of Summer isn’t over, but the kid starts school on Monday, so that means that this is the last weekend of Summer Vacation for the kid, and hr family as a whole. It did go by fast, and I do think all of us were ready for it to come to an end. This was the first Summer that we all chaffed at leaving our routine. I think in a large way, we had all come to enjoy the order that the school year brought us. It was like we had too much freedom. That really isn’t fully true, as we did enjoy going to to community pool, and the kid did love going to camp. The short vacation to West Virginia was relaxing, and calm and very enjoyable. It gave the wife and I a chance to recharge, and like all truly good vacations, it was over too soon. And though we still have at least another four weeks of heat and humidity in the City before we will notice a season change, it is time that we say farewell to Summer 2025. Goodbye, Summer… Goodbye, Summer…

    Okay, I get it; Banana Ball is a whole lotta fun. I will also say this; Banana Ball respects its fans, which is way more than I can same for MLB, the NFL, or NHL, and I’ll throw the NBA on that pile, too. Perhaps Banana Balls success is because it leans more in towards entertainment rather than athleticism, which is not to say the players are not athletes, for they are. Or perhaps Banana’s success is because the fan comes first in this equation. No flex priced tickets, no televised games stuck behind paywalls, no paying to reserve the right to buy season tickets, and basically not treating fans like they’re a mark who needs to have as much money squeezed out of them as possible.

    Speaking of the end of Summer, and stuff starting on Monday. I gotta get back into my writing routine…

  • 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.

  • I’m Done with Summer

    Yup, I hit the “I’m done with Summer moment” this weekend. We are currently in our third heatwave in NYC, which makes being in the City pretty unbearable. We have been inside with the a/c, which after awhile begins to feel unnatural and like we are stuck in a bubble. Then added on top of that, I got a summer cold. (We took plenty of Covid tests and they all came back negative.) This all culminated on Sunday when I uttered this demand to the gods, “I’m ready for Fall!”

    This declaration seems to arrive every year at the exact same time; the first week of August. Just like how I will ask for the end of Winter during the first week of February. It’s a pattern and also the rhythm that the clock of my life runs on.

    Yet, I read that from here on out, every year, Summer will start to get hotter and longer, and depending on where you live, you’ll either see more or less rain. Unless we do something, the hospitable human environment that has supported the development of civilization for the past 10,000 years is coming to a close. At least that’s what Neil deGrasse Tyson said.

    I know that’s a dark place to go, but I just want to put on a sweater cuz it’s cold out.

  • Planning for Fall?

    Summer’s over. It was a fast ten weeks for us, as that’s what the wife and I were saying to each other last night. We do have one final week until the kid starts school on Monday, but let’s be honest, it’s not much of a Summer week, being that we will be spending our time preparing for the start of classes.

    And it wasn’t that great of a Summer. I give it two and a half stars. And I will blame it all on the Delta Variant, and the half of the country that didn’t get vaccinated, for whatever reason that I don’t agree with, but here we are. The ability to return back to normal never materialized. Having normal fun with people? Not so much. A return to unobstructed travel wasn’t really possible either.. And now we are left with an Autumn that looks like it will be filled with anxiety and stress.

    But still, last night on the sofa, as we mourned our lost Summer, we still found ourselves falling into our old positive ways. We talked about our plans for the rest of the year; patching and painting the apartment, hanging new shelves in the kid’s room to free up floor space, getting tickets for the Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze in October, making the kid’s Halloween costume, Thanksgiving, and the Granddaddy of all planning, Christmas! We even kidded about going back to Maine next Summer.

    With everything happening, and it is STILL HAPPENING, we find ourselves being optimistic, and trying to plan for a better tomorrow.

    I don’t think we are being delusional, just hopeful.