Summer’s here! In the last week we have turned on the AC, turned off the water heater, packed away the jeans and long trousers and dug out the shorts. The swimming pool has just been refurbished, the BBQ has had a clean and the firepit has been moved to its parked position round the back.
The clocks have moved in Britain, which means we can watch The Chase at 7pm instead of 8pm. It is so much easier doing business when the gap is only two hours. It is that time of year when we move from the cool of winter towards the blistering heat of summer, and like the autumn when it is going the other way this is just perfect. This is the time for outdoor parties and BBQs for going to the beach (if you’re lucky enough to have a boat) and for sitting in the garden until the wee small hours putting the world to rights. I am sure that if I were able to remember all the great ideas we have at 3am then I would have been a rich man long ago. From now until the end of June it will be generally pleasant to be outside and when the weather gets too hot in July and August that’s the time to get away, fly north to colder climes.
The changing of the climate brings its challenges. The most usual of these which affects most of us is what I call A/C flu, when our household environment changes from non A/C to A/C, or vice versa. Like so many others I catch a cold which means sniffling through a few days of lethargy and pressure headaches. It is almost every time spring and autumn, brufen and hot toddies at the ready. It is also the Easter holidays when the schools break up for a couple of weeks. This is a bit more poignant in the Beedie household as young Master Beedie will be off to the UK to start at a new school at the start of the new term. This will leave his mother and I as empty nesters looking for activities to fill up our time when not at work. We currently have two suggestions bridge or golf. One is ‘a good walk spoiled’ usually in blistering hot conditions, the other is a frustrating card game at which you can get blistering hot under the collar. Both however allow you to keep suitably hydrated.
There is one other little tradition which applies to this time of the year and specifically tomorrow. It’s the day when many of the world’s governments and news organisations decide to publish some of the abstract stories which have been in the system for a few months, stories like the one on the BBC a few years ago about a bumper harvest of spaghetti from orchards of spaghetti trees. Expect to hear tomorrow that Nessie has been captured; CERN has discovered ‘The Force’ and that contact has been made with little green men from Mars. All of these stories are believable but if someone tells you that the president of the United States has been invited to join Mensa then you really need to look at the date.