Is It Finally Summer?

After weeks of cold, rainy, drippy, foggy, dismal weather it seems as though summer may have finally arrived.  While we are, no doubt, happy to see the sun for a change, having it show up more than a week into July is little comfort to berry growers, farmers trying to get their hay put up for the winter, or tourist-oriented businesses that rely on outdoor venues and activities.

For us it means softball practices and tournaments that might actually follow the posted schedule, track meets that aren’t endlessly rescheduled, and being able to take the motorcycle out more than once every two weeks without getting soaking wet.

 

Road Trip #3 – An Update

Last week I posted about the third installment in “Road Trips,” a feature on my friend Brian’s web site.  Brian posted his observations and reflections here.

 

Summer 2009, Part 3

Portland Head Light

Though the unsettled weather pattern doesn’t seem to have departed completely, today was almost enough to make you forget how dismal it has been for the last two, three weeks or more with little relief.  Fort Williams Park was crawling with people today; everyone, it seemed, happy to be out and about in the sunshine.  Even with all the visitors enjoying the view of Portland Head Light, Casco Bay and its islands, it was a great opportunity to break out the camera, enjoy the sights, and forget that this is the last day of vacation (for now, anyway).

Portland and Casco Bay from Fort Williams Park

 

Independence Day 2009

 

Summertime (Vacation) Blues

The weather lately sucks.  Even my mother-in-law said so, and she just doesn’t say things like that.

I know it doesn’t do any good to complain, of course, but I can’t help it.  As Mark Twain said, “Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”  Well, nobody else has any motivation beyond the things that are already scheduled and limit our ability to do anything else, either.  I can’t even go outside and work in the yard fercryinoutloud.  By the time I get to mow the lawn I’ll have to put the mower on stilts.

If I were clever I’d some up with weather and vacation frustration related lyrics to “Summertime Blues.”  As it is, I’ll settle for a few minutes’ escape by watching and listening to it (here, here and here).

 

Road Trip #3 – Not All Is As It Seems

For starters, the weather for Friday’s outing didn’t look very promising.  Prepared with rain gear that turned out to be unnecessary, the road trip to Portsmouth, New Hampshire was run in some of the very limited sunshine we have seen lately.  Riding down Route 1 from where I picked it up in Scarborough turned out to be a mistake.  Big mistake.  Huge.  Before I go on with the story, let me explain what this is all about.

Earlier this year my friend Brian came up with the idea of taking trips to places within 50 miles of home and posting about them.  We got to hear about Concord, NH on Tax Day (Tea Party and all – though wasn’t the original about taxation without representation, not disagreeing with your democratically elected representatives and having a hissy?  But I digress, as usual) and Pawtucket, Rhode Island (or, as it’s pronounced in some locales, “Rho Disland”) as road trips #1 and #2.   Several weeks had passed since Brian’s last post about another road trip, and it  had been a long time since we really did anything together, so I suggested finding a location roughly equidistant to which we could go (ideally at the same time) and post about.  Thus, the road trip to Portsmouth was born.

 

Summer 2009, Part 2

Now that summer 2009 is officially underway, what do we do with it?  Well, I don’t know what you’re doing with it (though I’d be interested to hear), but we’re spending ours doing all the things I listed in Part 1.  After spending the week after town meeting essentially getting ready to go on vacation (which was almost enough to convince that going on vacation wasn’t worth it), we took our eldest to Colonial Inauguration at GW.  The weather was a pleasant surprise – warm, to be sure, but not the famously muggy DC summer weather – and the program was interesting, informative, and entertaining.  Getting to see the city by night from the top of the Elliott School of International Affairs after a performance by The Capitol Steps was a nice treat.

Our return from Wasington, DC also brought us home to the “June monsoon,” a seemingly undending stretch of cool, gray, drippy weather.  Most days it doesn’t rain all that much, but we get showers, some drizzle, mist, fog, and only an occasional (and apparently unpredictable) break of sun and refreshing breeze.   To say the weather has put a damper on things would be an understatement.  Softball tournament schedules squeezed and shuffled around to fit the gaps in precipitation.  The motorcycle ride for the last day of the Great North Woods Ride-In?  Washed out.  The weather did relent long enough to spend part of the day in Portsmouth with my friend Brian, and to see a softball game yesterday.  The weather outlook for the remainder of this vacation?  Depressingly familiar.

 

Summer 2009, Part 1

For some, summer starts the weekend of Memorial Day.  Bumper to bumper, cars darting in and out, 500 miles of speed and suspense.  And then there’s the Indy 500.  Astronomical purists say summer doesn’t start, in the Northern Hemisphere anyway, until June 21st (-ish).  I say summer starts after town meeting.

 

Can You Hear Us Now? Good!

When they’re not testing the range of the Verizon Wireless network, Nona and Doris will be filing reports about life at sea.  I’ll refrain from using the generous collection of marine mammal puns.

 

Stuffing the Vocabulary Box

One million words.  Supposedly the English language can now claim over a million words in its lexicon.  Only if you include words like “webinar,” now a fairly old addition, “weisure,” “staycation,” and now “naycation*.”  Blecch.

I mean, I know the language is continually evolving and changing but, really, people ought to be embarassed to say some of these words.  I try to avoid using them at all cost.

But they couldn’t come up with something better than “Web 2.0″ as the millionth word?  That’s been around since 1999 fercryinoutloud (now there’s a word)!

*What do you say to someone going on naycation?  ”Non voyage!”