song for the day: “summer’s coming” by sean watkins, from the album blinders on
it’s still spring — a fact about which a friend and i were arguing the other day. but the days are getting longer, the air is heating up, the bugs are coming out, and vegetables other than cabbages are being harvested.
here, then, are some ways to mark the season’s approach (or ways i’m marking it, at least).
you know summer’s coming when …
- you can go barefoot outside without freezing your feet
- you can go barefoot outside without wincing
- you get chastised for not wearing socks with your sneakers
- you have baked beans at multiple events in one day
- you attend two weddings in the course of eight days
- you become disoriented because the sun tricks you into staying up later
- people see your legs for the first time in months
- your legs slowly start losing their blinding white cast
- you lie in the grass for five minutes and end up with a beauty pageant sash of chigger bites
- you can see your freckles for the first time in months
- you no longer wonder what shoes to wear because you default to sandals
- you actually turn the air conditioner on in the car or the house
- you have a fan to augment the air conditioner
- you look forward to a cricket song lullaby
- you start smashing june bugs
- you start craving peaches and tomatoes
- you smell the scent of honeysuckle wafting through the air
- you notice the rabbit and/or chipmunk population has doubled
- smoked pork or charcoal lighter fluid are common evening neighborhood scents
- you have several near escapes from being beaned with a volleyball
- you see “for sale” signs on every third house in the newer subdivisions
- pregnant women are everywhere and very obvious
- the line at sheridan’s is five wide and about ten deep every night
- you start thinking you should learn to make/drink cold brew coffee
- you start craving hamburgers
- you never want to see another hot dog
- you can bicycle to work except for the days it thunderstorms
- you start acquiring a sunburn tan
- you get up from doing other things just to see the sunset