How do you know that it's summer? The first sunburn? The first trip to Cedar Point? What?

-- Meghan (faeriebaby@hotmail.com), April 26, 2000

Answers

I can usually tell it's summer when: 1) I start bitching more about the heat. 2) My air conditioner is constantly running. 3) Staying outside for more than a half hour leaves me looking like a lobster. (Damn fair skin.) 4) I spend as much time as possible indoors. 5) All my least-favorite bugs (bees, wasps, hornets, and the like) suddenly return in swarms to dive-bomb me when I'm in the yard, minding my own business. 6) I start carting a can of Raid around my house, because the afforementioned Winged Spawn of Satan seem to find their way into my home with alarming frequency. 7) My dog and I go on shorter walks, because neither of us particularly wants to be outside for too long. 8) I start longing for the ice storms I bitched about during the previous winter.

Jenn (still sleep-deprived)

-- Jenn (Hockeygirl_68@yahoo.com), April 26, 2000.

Um.......it's pretty much freaking summer down here all year round in Florida!!!!! But it's when you get your driver's tan in your car. Your car is like 110 degrees and it feels somewhat cool out until you get into or out of it. When your air conditioning runs and runs but your car and house still don't get cool. When the pollen count goes up through the roof and you can't breathe.

You had to mention Cedar Point, didn't you??!!!??? WWaaahhhhh!!! I loved that place. The Raptor Rules by the way!!!!!

~Amber

-- Amber Starcat (Amber_Star_Cat@hotmail.com), April 26, 2000.

Summer?!? It's not even anywhere near freakin' Spring around here in New England. It was thirty-six degrees with wind and rain and a few fat wet snow flakes mixed in with that rain when I drove to work this morning but don't worry, the temp might make it all the way up to forty by mid-day... or maybe not...

I'm teaching a class this week. I have two people from Puerto Rico in the class who are complaining about the cold. Okay, that's understandable. However, I also have a group of people from Minnesota who are complaining about the cold -- it's seventy degrees this week in the Minneapolis-St.Paul area.

So, Meghan, where did you get this summer weather from? (Would you like to ship some of it to Rhode Island?)

Jim

P.S. I gave my son (three weeks short of his 15th birthday) a ride to school this morning. I asked him if he would like to get a sweatshirt or something to put on... he was wearing those jumbo baggy cargo shorts that are below knee length with a short sleeved t-shirt... he said no, he was just fine the way he was... So if you can't send me any summer, how about telling me how I can become forty years younger?

-- Jim (jimsjournal@yahoo.com), April 26, 2000.

Summer here sadly never happens until after the May 24th weekend, for those of you not lost in Canadiana, May 24th is a holiday in memory of Queen Victoria. It is largely taken as the first sign of summer here.... every year on this long weekend, thousands trek off into the widlerness of the Great Newfoundland Outdoors to camp... to celebrate the arrival of summer... the only problem is that nature never quite agrees with it... almost always there is some sort of snow or freezing rain pelting in on those hapless campers off getting too loaded to know that they will awake with hypothermia... ahhh eys... that first weekend of summer...

-- Geoff (gfseymour@nf.sympatico.ca), April 26, 2000.

I know it's summer because I began to slack in school and because I no longer play softball I don't have that "required g.p.a to play" rule over my head so it's even worse this year. Also I know it's summer because I start taking my breaks outside at work.

-- kelly mcg! (jacksfan30@aol.com), April 26, 2000.

How do I know that it's summer? Simple. We only have two seasons in Florida - Fall and Summer, so if it isn't nice outdoors, it's summer.
Jim, you can have all this heat. You can have the humidity that sticks to the inside of your lungs, the blaring, hazy, bright sun, the absolute lack of rain for the past few freaking months.. you can have all of it. Really. Take. I don't want it.

Animate.

-- Julie (ZepFiend@aol.com), April 27, 2000.

Summer, eh? Well, that would be when my sisters get out for summer vacation (which means for me summer doesn't start until the last or second-to-last week of June). When we take off for Vermont for a week immediately after that. When the fans are constantly running, as is the lone air conditioner in a vain attempt to at least get rid of the humidity if you can't make it cooler in here. (Ironically -- or maybe not -- my room is the most stable in the house temperature- wise. Kinda nice.) When I have to go up to my youngest sister's room at least weekly to squash whatever bug is chillin' on her ceiling or walls. When the most kick-ass thunderstorms in the world hit. (I live right where the Hudson and Mohawk rivers meet, so I guess all that water makes things freakin' awesome.) When my mother insists on keeping the outside garbage can in the garage instead of right next to the back door like in winter. When my dad tries to prove his cooking prowess on the grill, but usually falls short. (Though he has gotten better the past couple years.) When such cookouts are accompanied (not always, but it's glorious when it is) by me mum's world-famous potato salad. (Her macaroni salad's good too, but nothing beats her potato.) When I come up with all these plans of things to do during the summer, never get around to any of it, and then complain come the middle of August that I'm bored out of my mind and I can't possibly do any of the things I wanted to 'cuz now there's not enough time to do anything. When tornado warnings pop up in the surrounding area every so often. When Mom finally succeeds at having a family outing to somewhere. When the days are long, the nights are short, and the possibilities are endless.

(Okay, so I didn't quite answer the question. Phbbbt. *g*)

-- Tim (mediabrat@hotmail.com), April 28, 2000.

Will probably get a lot of grief for this one. The first bikini top on campus in the halls or in class.

-- Tim (hermant@olin.wustl.edu), April 28, 2000.

I can think of only one thing to say to that, Tim... Hooray for boobies!

("You and me baby ain't nuthin' but mammals/So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel" -- The Bloodhound Gang, "The Bad Touch", _Hooray For Boobies_)

-- Tim (mediabrat@hotmail.com), May 01, 2000.

Um...well...boobies aren't bad...

But....well....

I'd rather see that "thooooonnnnnnnnggggg, that thong, thong,thong, thong thong!!!!!!!"

Sorry, guys, you started this!!!! And ya left the door wide open (get it???) with it!!!!! Hee hee!!! Just call me a nut for sure!!!! I really love the new Cisco song...in fact, lots of women, Meg included, do too!!!! I took a poll at work and there were just 6 of us in the area that dig it!!!!

"Getting horny now!" Bloodhound Gang!!!!

~~~~A perverted Amber!!!!

-- Amber (amber_star_cat@hotmail.com), May 01, 2000.

ok meghan, i just wanted to tell you that i just thought of this, remembered your forum, and was forced to come here and inform you of it! sorry if it's a little late, but you can't force inspiration. or something....

ANYWAY, i HATE summer here in southeast virginia, the humidity part anyway, but i like the end of school after the anxiety of exams and grades, and i love the fact that it starts getting lighter outside -- sunshine early and late, instead of winter when it's dark when i go to class and dark when i get out. sure, that sun is going to get old after a while, but i'll enjoy it while i can.

-- Falwyn (falwyn@diaryland.com), May 05, 2000.