Summertime, Summertime, Sum, Sum, Summertime!
AS FAR AS I’M CONCERNED SUMMER STARTED ON SATURDAY. I don’t care what the calendar or a gaggle of astronomers say as they look at the motion of the planets. When we flip that page, either paper or electronic, into June we are there! It is Summertime and I’m going to struggle to keep it there until the snow begins to fall.
That’s my story and I’m sticking with it!
To make everything official I have broken into the Sacred Vault of Hawaiian Shirts and Beachfront Attitude. The sand in my eyes each morning is now a residue from the shores of the sunlit ocean.
It is all so Jimmy Buffett.
Once MY summer begins (Saturday) the world becomes a different place, Mon! Terre Haute (That’s French for “Pass the Coppertone”) becomes a branch office of the most beautiful beaches in both Jamaica and the better parts of the California Coastline…Incorporated.
In the nooks and crannies of my brain (Think Cauliflower) the change to a more tropical point of view has been marinating – slowly changing from those ugly Polar Attitudes of Winter, barreling through the twenty minutes of spring, and on into Summertime.
All I have to do is slip into one of my vibrant Hawaiian Shirts and the transformation is almost instantaneous. The feel of that brightly colored cloth against my skin triggers the transformation. It stirs within my heart the warmth of the Sun until it bursts forth. It is a lot like the birth of the monster in all of those “Alien” movies…only with a lot less blood, gore, and screaming than Sigourney Weaver had to deal with. Think of joyful happiness instead of mass murder.
“Open the pod bay doors, Hal.”
This seasonal change even affects my diet. Moving from a “Game of Thrones” seemingly perpetual winter in my brain to the Summertime of “The Great Gatsby” has me putting aside the plateful of burgers and fries and craving pineapples and…burgers and fries.
I didn’t say it was a perfect transformation.
Today when I go out for a cool drink somewhere I will sit outside and bask in the sunshine until I begin to turn pink. I justify it all by reminding myself that the sun is my nonprescription source of Vitamin D. I know that Vitamin D is very important for men of my age so this is all part of my Preventative Health Program. I am my own little HMO.
HMO = Have More Outdoor
Being outside when the weather is warm, hot even, is a vitally important thing to me. I thrive in the heat. If I may say so myself…I am like an orchid. (Keep any wisecracks to yourself) When it is warm, above 75 degrees I physically feel better. My joints loosen up and my aches and pains go from being debilitating all the way down to just being annoying. That’s as much as I can ask for I suppose. But I keep asking anyway.
Heat and I are the best of friends.
Down the Hall on Your Left 