Summer Rant

I hate summer with a passion.

I've not always felt this way, however. As a kid, growing up in the northeast, I loved summer. Summer meant no school and no schedules, not having to get up early. I spent most days doing whatever I wanted: climbing trees, riding my bike, playing games, roaming through the woods, etc.

Best of all were the days we went to the beach. I'd always come home pleasantly tired from the sun and surf, and would fall asleep easily, lulled by the sound of crickets outside my open bedroom window. Living close to the Narragansett Bay, we didn't need air conditioning at night, as breezes from the bay would always cool us.

As a kid, though, I didn't seem to feel the heat (or cold, for that matter) as intensely as I do now.

The summers of my youth are a pleasant memory of long, lazy days and relaxed nights, when the living was easy, as the song goes.

Once I started my responsible adult life, I no longer liked summer, especially after I moved to the South, where the relentless summer heat is like a blast furnace. It gets so hot down here that it takes your breath away, covering you in a miasma-like thickness.

And there's nothing more miserable that having to go to work, no matter how hot it gets, feeling wilted and sweaty all day long. Some days it's so hot that I find myself looking around for the guy wearing a red suit and carrying a pitchfork...

I stay inside as much as possible during the summer, avoiding the sun and bright sunlight like a vampire. I've got two fully mature maple trees in my front yard, which entirely covers the yard in blessed shade.

Working evenings also helps quite a bit. But at the zenith of summer, when it's 90 degrees at midnight, working late hours isn't much of a respite.

Did I forget to mention that "summer" (70 degrees and above, shorts weather) lasts three-quarters of the year here? It's always slow to leave us in the fall and quick to arrive in the spring.

All I can do is dream of November, when summer finally goes away.

Thoughts?