The summary of my summer: not very summery.
Yes, the summer is not technically over yet, but it has not felt like much of a summer during this whole season. Let me explain, in list format:
- The hiatus on biking knocked out a huge component of most of recent my summers.
- The temperature was usually quite mild, with highs often not exceeding 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Teaching in July made it impossible for me to take any weekends or days off–I even worked on Independence Day!
- Furthermore, I have been put on additional pressure from work, which has dissuaded me from taking days off during the week like I have often done during previous summers.
- I have put on my swimsuit a total of zero times since Memorial Day (in fact, the last time I donned a swimsuit was Labor Day of last year). However, this seems to be my new normal in Chicago, as there are no outdoor pools that are convenient to my location, and Lake Michigan’s water is too cold for my liking.
- I have not made it to a baseball game.
However, it was not a complete non-summery summer. Some of the activities that I did do that were much in the spirit and ideals of summer (notice: my summary was not “Not summery at all”):
- The Taste of Randolph, where I listened to music and unexpectedly encountered a few friends.
- Going to Ravinia on Independence Day, and listening to jazz outside.
- A picnic with Yad b’Yad in mid-July.
Of course, as I get older, summer will no longer be the care-free season that it used to be during my childhood. In some sense, it has morphed ever since high school, when I was working at Runza. And my summers in undergraduate years were filled with research, but I still enjoyed some free time.
It may sound like a complaint, but you just have to roll with the punches and accept differences.
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Today is the two-hundred and thirty-seventh day of M.M.X.I.V. That makes thirty-four weeks and six days.
Today is the forty-second day of the Character Building Trial. That makes six weeks.
Never A Worry 
So glad you were able to experience some summery activities, Noah. After a brief heart wave back in June, it has been pretty unsummery over here too – and is now more than a touch autumnal; in fact, it is raining and grey today.
I think your point concerning summer and the maturational process is a good one: We all recall those halcyon summers of yore, don’t we?! And, somehow, such things seem less intense as we get older – the sun seems less sunny, the excitement less fizzy!
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A very good point, Ali. Indeed, perhaps one’s expectations of summer naturally diminish as the days go by.
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I think we all go through a kind of cynical/worldly-wise phase, Noah; well, I know I did – but perhaps the generalisation is a little unfair.
Oddly enough, now I am in my fifties, the world is as radiant and magical as it was when I was a little child, and all the seasons have regained their beauty, colour and mystery. x
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Ah, the circle of life!
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Summery summers change character as we get older… rolling with them means you get to enjoy them just as much but in new and different ways… even if you still miss that carefree childhood feeling sometimes
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Thanks for the input, Sue! Indeed, summer still has its charm even if it is in a different sense than childlike innocence.
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It does indeed. 🙂
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