The Lazy Days of Summer

They aren’t really all that lazy. I work like a dog mowing the lawn. That’s on the weekends usually, because I want to keep the schedule as one that I can do should I get another job. I have the feeling that I should be asking Santa to give me a job for Christmas. I really don’t like not having a job.

We always view summer as a lazy time. I guess that’s because most Americans take their vacations during the summer. Kids aren’t in school, for the most part. There are areas of the country that have the kids go to school year round with a couple of weeks off here and there. It’s probably better for them, it prepares them for when they have to join the rat race and work for a living. Winter has its upside as well, but I am not sure what that upside is, other than in the northern hemisphere, Christmas occurs in winter.

The words lazy days of summer conjure up visions of lying in a hammock with a good book and a cool drink. The problem with that image is the bugs, mosquitoes don’t always come out at dusk, and sometimes they are around all the time. Then there are the birds. They are not always polite. In their defense, they don’t have control over their body functions, an adaptation for flight. Still, lawn mowing aside, there seems to be a general lessening of the frenetic pace we Americans usually exhibit as we squander our lives.

Don’t get me wrong, I am just as intent as anyone else to squander my life. I just stop now and then and wonder what the hell I’m doing before diving back into the frantic flow of American life. That’s not to say that I have an overwhelming ambition to rule the corporate world, I don’t. I just want to be able to play as much as I can, but that takes money. Summer eases that need for money, if you want to work hard in a vegetable garden. I’d rather buy mine. As for the good book, they cost money. The cool drink costs money and every time I tried to lie in a hammock, my older brother would come along and tip it on its end so I was on my head with my feet in the air. That tends to sour you on lying in hammocks. Still, we see summer as an idyllic time, when the heat doesn’t crush the breath out of us.

We had a heat wave in July that just sucked the energy out of me. I don’t have central air conditioning. I just make do with a few room air conditioners and that works well enough for the most part, as long as I don’t move around much. I was scared of my electric bill. Of course, the cats still want to lie on me, furry furnaces, welcome in winter, are not so welcome when it’s over ninety degrees. The lazy days of summer are actually few and far between.