I am not summer people

Posted on by Live & Learn

I neglected to make plans for the summer. This obviously should have been worked out months ago…All around me people are busy relaxing. Somehow, they arranged to spend their weekends in July at the beach and are away in August…

As for me, I didn’t key into any of the warnings — the lists of must-try ice cream pop-ups and which beach towels to buy. The internet sets up a constant swirl of seasonal prep and appreciation — get ready, get ready, enjoy it, indulge, it’s the last gasp — and then suddenly, it’s gone, and it’s time to review the highs and lows.

Maybe seasonal shape shifting has knocked me off my pegs. Winter is snowless, spring is short, summer seems to have stretched outward, its oppressive heat hovers over the full calendar year like a threat. Now — who knew? — August is here and I haven’t begun to make the most of the season…

I haven’t been to the beach or the pool or the lake. The Weber grill is covered in dead leaves and there’s a wasp nest back there that I’ve been meaning to call someone (who?) to remove. I’ve spent no time on a boat, on an outdoor chaise or nestled in a hammock. I’ve worn neither gingham nor seersucker nor floppy hat. I forgot to obsess over Lyme disease, but it doesn’t matter because I have yet to venture into a summer meadow or grassy field…

I am not summer people, something hard to admit because summer is also the pushiest season, the most insistent that it be reveled in publicly. I’m not sure I have the time or energy required to pursue it, at least not in real life. I marvel at people with second homes when I can barely stay on top of my one, and summer traffic stresses me out…

And what did I miss, really? I got my insides churned to the point of nausea by the summer’s political cycle without going to Six Flags. The Olympics arrived online, no need to sweat it out in oversubscribed Paris. My nonexistent summer was if nothing else cheap…

Is this just regret masquerading as smug superiority and earthy thrift? Perhaps. But I can focus on that in the fall, which is apparently next month, and it is past time to get ready. I’ve seen the Halloween candy on the shelves.

— Pamela Paul, from “It’s Too Late for Summer Now.” (NY Times, August 15, 2024)

44 thoughts on “I am not summer people”

  2. She’s spot on – summer is a pushy season, and one is remiss if not engaged in going somewhere or coming home from somewhere, grilling until the mere thought prompts feelings of exhaustion…And the extremes we live with somehow contradict the desire to ‘do’ – the pace is dizzying regardless. Summer insists; fall beckons

  4. I’m not liking summer the way I used to… And I think it’s due to global warming to a certain extent. I’m a 60 – 65° person. Cool enough to be active, and not pass out from heat stroke if I’m very active.

    I always have envisioned moving someplace warmer in the later years of my life (which are already here dammit). But I’m rethinking that now. Because when I was a kid, there were two or 3 feet of snow on the ground ALL winter in Vermont. Now we get 3 inches to a foot of snow at a time, and then it often melts back to a point where I can see grass patches again. This cycle repeats for much of the winter.

    The warmer climate is (sadly) coming to me. I no longer feel the strong need to move south. I don’t really like anything higher than 80°, and I absolutely hate humidity. I have not spent a lot of time outside during the hot days this summer.

    Perhaps because we humans, sometimes through lack of knowledge, and other times through greed, have totally messed up the environment….Perhaps I am now exactly where I should be.

    This new/warmer climate feels very strange. It will require considerably more thought on my part before I will really know where I would like to live next. I may already be there. This may end up being to my advantage, but my heart breaks when I think of what we have done to Mother Earth.

  5. In agreement…there is a ‘pressure’ to summer that seems to outweigh any other season, an insistence that one have something planned, something (I shudder as I say this) “Instagramable” to share.

    Fall is my favorite…a season that, as Mimi says, beckons. The invitation to stroll along a woodland path bursting with color or loll before a fire that really isn’t needed just yet but that coerces with delicious smells and crackles; the urge to drag out the crockpot and whip up a stew; the eagerness to don a sweater if only for the evening hours. These are the things I yearn for in the lazy days of August.

      1. I was wondering just this morning where Lori might live (approximately, and I honestly can’t remember why at the moment). I lived in Central Florida (outside of Orlando in Kissimmee) for six years. That’s the only time I have left Vermont. I couldn’t take the heat/humidity, and I missed the mountains. But I desperately needed a change and I had friends down there. Glad I did it, but I should’ve come home after three years 🙂

  6. We prefer to stay home, watch the tourists getting burned on our beaches, paying incredible high prices between July and end of September and aren’t liked by the locals like us.
    Thanks, dear Klaus, for this quote.
    Wishing you a great end of the summer
    The Fab Four of Cley
    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

  7. I’m all about the fall -I love the in-between seasons the best. summer is robust and loud, and winter is frozen and beautiful, but those in-betweens are magical moments

      1. Menopause maybe? Lol
        But I never tolerated heat. Kiki and I were chatting about this the other day. I can do heat, desert heat. As long as there’s no humidity

  11. Well, this is a different voice. I do like summer, even though the heat is not pleasant these days and sometimes feels foreboding. Living near the coast, I’m glad when they come this direction and don’t worry much about what I’m “supposed to do.” to see friends.

    I get it… No one enjoys feeling pressure to behave a certain way during a certain season but I’m a firm believer in recreation. I just hope there are opportunities for people to re-create on their terms. I believe i’s needed for everyone!

  12. “August is here and I haven’t begun to make the most of the season…”

    And oh… the poor teachers! Smiling. I have two more books to read in 6 days…before my time spent reading is for 4th grade essays. Summer seems to speed everything up, and magnify every little thing. All under a sweltering sun and cloud of lantern flies. Still with 6 full days left, I plan to make the most of it. Maybe even accomplish something I promised myself earlier this summer, after your post about ice cream and its super power of helping us live longer. Ice cream for lunch?! I think I can make it happen.

    I also have to agree with many of your faithful (and you DK) fall is the superior time of year. Will the lantern flies be gone by then?

      1. Sorry I was just looking at your sunrise photos from today and wondering the same thing……

  14. I love summer, even if all I do is sit outside and read a book. But we finally got to the beach for the first day this summer this past Friday. There’s nothing like it. Now it’s time to tackle the other 40 items on my summer to-do list…

          2. CLAS. Currently a Political Science major. Hopefully Tyler will have an opportunity to take a course in the business school and potentially have you as a professor.

          3. What an exciting time to be a Political Science major! If Tyler is ever down in the Business School, he is more than welcome to stop by and introduce himself. Also, I’ll plant this idea in his mind – the Summer Business Institute…

          4. Yes! The current political climate can certainly be described as exciting. I will share your invitation! Thank you for any & all advice as he navigates his freshman year. Elated he will be able to call Villanova his “new home”. Warm wishes for a wonderful semester.

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