I’m pitting the entire season of summer. It might be a populistic thing to do at this board, since many here are indoors people like myself, but I have to.
There used to be a season known as spring. In these days of global warming, its appearance is almost mythical. Now it’s only the small turning point between winter and summer. Spring and early autumn are what I concider perfect seasons - they are decently warm so that you can put on appropriate but nice-looking clothes. The nature is beautiful but not agressive.
Summer, on the other hand, forces you to be a survivor. You perspirate despite adjusting to the heat. You lose energy because of the heat. Also, modern summer clothes are hideous. To add - here up north, there’s almost sunshine all day around. I literally often miss the night even when I’m up late because it just goes by that quickly.
Saunas are good, because they let us experience warmth as a sensation and a social experiment. I don’t think we should have to deal with it in nature as well. I pit summer!
You’re on your own here. I love summer. I like being outdoors in cutoffs and a t-shirt, riding my bike through air that feels like a warm, wet blanket. I love when the raspberries start ripening, and then the blackberries, and the peaches.
Hah. Well, let me put it this way: if the Scandinavian heat is too much for me, then I don’t think the climate in Saudi-Arabia would convince me to like summer more.
I have experienced Athens in mid-july. It was hell.
+1
I cant handle heat. I sleep with the window open in the winter. mrAru occasionally calls me Ms Freeze and asks if I have seen Ahnold lately. I have a 10K BTU air conditioner in the 100 sq foot bedroom. When it is on high you could hang beef in here. I am content=)
Yes, but it’s a DRY heat! I grew up in the Sacramento Valley in California. Summers there are effing miserable–I’ve experienced temperatures as high as 125[sup]o[/sup] F and it’s not unusual to have twenty or thirty straight days with temps over 100[sup]o[/sup] F, with low temperatures at night seldom dropping lower than 85[sup]o[/sup] F. For most of my time there we did not have air conditioning, including one memorable period when I resided in a single wide mobile home (otherwise known as “an aluminum box with minimal insulation sitting in a bed of highly reflective rocks with no vegetation anywhere near”) with a busted swamp cooler. The heat itself isn’t so bad, per se, if you are perhaps sitting next to a river or lake or a swimming pool. Unfortunately, one is expected to carry on with a life, which means DRIVING in that mess, walking over large expanses of asphalt parking lot, getting stuck in traffic jams where the heat near the road is close to 140[sup]o[/sup] F–you basically spend all your time scuttling from one oasis of air conditioning to another.
Now I live in Oregon, where it actually RAINS during the summer (in Suckatomato it usually never rains from late April to sometime in October) and the temperature rarely gets up to 100[sup]o[/sup] F. As far as I’m concerned if I never have to experience an ambient temperature higher than 85[sup]o[/sup] F I’ll be happy.
I hate summer. I hate the heat, the humidity (and people who say, "it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity should be shot without blindfolds), the moquitos, the weeds, the never ending laundry, the never ending sweat, the going through 3 bras a day due to perspiration, never mind the shirts. I would much rather have a prolonged spring or fall plus winter.
Things I like about summer: fireflies, crickets and frogs at night, the amount of daylight, thunderstorms.
The rest you can keep.
I’m dreading the summer, which is fast approaching. This is going to be the first summer in several years where I’ll have swamp cooling instead of A/C. So far it’s working fine, but it’s still just in the low 90’s and still cooling off at night. That won’t last long. And, as anyone who’s lived with a swamp cooler knows, in July and August when the humidity’s up, it won’t work worth a shit. I am NOT looking forward to it!
I used to dislike summer, then I put on too much weight, now I absolutely despise it.
I’ve always loved late autumn and winter. I can handle the cold, I can wrap myself up in bed at night and sleep like a log. I can run and play football for more than 2 minutes without needing a shower immediately afterwards. There aren’t swarms of insects flying about… AND NO FUCKING HAYFEVER.
Oh yeah, and my fucking bastard of a next-door neighbour seems to think a hot day is a great time for a bonfire. He lights it less than 5m away from the house, the smoke almost always blows towards ours; forcing me to close some windows. Or another family a couple of doors up decide to cook an incredibly spicy smelling dinner, completely overpowering my senses from 3 fucking houses away. The windows close, I kill another kitten. God damn it.
I LOVE summer. I love the tiny little clothes. I love sunlight and warm air on bare skin. I love the beach. I love the looooooooooong hours of daylight. I love the warm nights, and the outdoor living. I love sleeping with the windows open.
It’s been way too cold and rainy around here. I shouldn’t be cold in mid May! Bring on summer!
I like summer. I don’t care for excessive heat and humidity, but most of the time, the weather is tolerable. I don’t even turn on the a/c till it gets over 85 degrees inside the house. But I did have central air installed a couple years ago and when its hazy, hot and humid out, it sure is nice. I love the sounds of the cicadas, leafhoppers, crickets and frogs. At night, there are thousands of fireflies dancing over the fields. There are turtles, snakes and lizards wandering around fairly frequently and lots of birds. I’d never seen a bluebird (our state bird) till I moved here, and now I have them nesting in my yard. I even keep trying to grow a garden. If it’s true that the third time’s the charm, this is the year I actually get something to grow. Besides weeds, of course.
I’ve been known to say the ‘dry heat’ line, although I do live in Vegas and have had to fly in a helicopter in full chem-warfare gear in the middle of July.
And I will still say, “But hey, at least it was a dry heat.”
You can guarantee 1 of 2 things about a person when they say this about Arizona:
1.) They’ve been here in May or early June when it’s 105 and dry, and thought that’s as hot as it gets.
2.) They are a tongue-dangling, googley-eyed, slobbering, zombie-shuffling moron of the 1st degree.
Starting around the 2nd or 3rd week of July and lasting until mid to late September is our Monsoon Season, when the weather is at its hottest (typical day 115+) and it is no longer a “dry heat”.
I’ve met more than one person who moved here from the midwest and boasted all spring about how much hotter their summers are because they’re so humid - and then cried mercy when July arrived.
I’m with you cw. I hate sweating, I hate the inevitable heat rash I’ll get over two-thirds of my body, and I hate my job that becomes a veritable inferno every July.
I’ve tried convincing my doctor to take my gallbladder out this summer, being proactive-like since no female in my entire extended family has managed to live past forty with theirs intact. I figure if I schedule it right, the recovery (in my lovely air-conditioned home) could get me right through the worst heat of the season, but my doc has this silly notion about waiting for actual symptoms before cutting into me. Hmph!
I grew up in the Sacramento Valley in California. Summers there are effing miserable–I’ve experienced temperatures as high as 125[sup]o[/sup] F and it’s not unusual to have twenty or thirty straight days with temps over 100[sup]o[/sup] F, with low temperatures at night seldom dropping lower than 85[sup]o[/sup] F. For most of my time there we did not have air conditioning, including one memorable period when I resided in a single wide mobile home (otherwise known as “an aluminum box with minimal insulation sitting in a bed of highly reflective rocks with no vegetation anywhere near”) with a busted swamp cooler. The heat itself isn’t so bad, per se, if you are perhaps sitting next to a river or lake or a swimming pool. Unfortunately, one is expected to carry on with a life, which means DRIVING in that mess, walking over large expanses of asphalt parking lot, getting stuck in traffic jams where the heat near the road is close to 140[sup]o[/sup] F–you basically spend all your time scuttling from one oasis of air conditioning to another.