What I Love About Summer

This may be the shortest post I've ever written, because as everyone who knows me has heard me whine, I do not love summer. I do not like the heat and the consequent sweating, or the melting asphalt, or the heat-provoked sleep interruptions, or the kids down the block with their 2 a.m. firecrackers, or chiggers, or the lack of soup, or...well, I could go on and on, and often do.

So here is what I love about summer:

(Insert crickets chirping)

Hmmm. I meant for that line to be an indication of complete and total silence, but come to think of it, I do kind of like the sound of crickets, assuming I'm not trying to sleep and the cricket is chirping from behind the door of the bedroom. And cicadas? Yeah, I love the sound of cicadas.

And I love watermelon, and corn on the cob, and ooooh, homegrown tomatoes. The smell of wheatfields being burned off. That blast of cold air that marks transition between outdoors and indoors. So You Think You Can Dance on television.

T-shirts, bare legs, iced coffee. No slush tracks on the living room floor. Not worrying about Boys who may be traveling. My old Birks. Not having to fight for parking spaces on campus.

Boys at home.

And today, what I love about summer? College offices closing Fridays at noon during July.

Good times. Great summer.