How Summer Time Saves Us....

“Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit.  A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world.” 

             --Ada Louise Huxtable

The world turns and then suddenly, it is summer.  June 21^st this year to be exact, at 1:04 am Eastern Standard Time, to be really exact. Friday. THIS WEEK!

Daylight is maxed out. Temperatures are up. Worries are down.  Calendars are forgotten.  Time widens, deepens, and slows. Clouds drift by on long lazy afternoons.  Skin heats up.  Grills sizzle.  Flowers pop. Baseballs fly. Dogs rest. Waves crash. Thunder rumbles.

Summer.

True, there are gifts to love about the other three God made seasons in this part of the world: fall’s fading beauty of arbor colors, winter’s cold and stark landscapes, spring’s hope buried just beneath the earth, waiting to be born.  Still I can’t help falling in love every June with summer all over again. 

So to get ready for the season here are some random, profound, simple, silly, spiritual  and sublime summer facts for the next 94 days, 2,256 hours or 135,360 minutes….

*Official first and last days of summer 2013: June 21^st and September 21

*Real first and last days of summer: Memorial Day Friday when work lets out and Labor Day Monday when the grill is turned off

*Las Vegas odds Red Sox will win 2013 World Series, as of last March: 28 to 1

*As of June 15^th—15 to 1—GO SOX!!!!!!!

*Longest home run in Fenway Park history: 502 feet hit, by Ted Williams, summer 1946

*Cost for family of four to attend a Sox game: $336.99

*A Lowell Spinners Game (BoSox Single A team): under $100

*Best time to leave for the Cape to avoid traffic: 2:45 am, Wednesday morning

*Best time to go to the Cape: anytime

*#1 all time summer song, per Billboard Magazine: “Surfin’ Safari” by the Beach Boys

*Caloric content per serving of healthy summer fare from the garden: cucumbers (8 calories), tomatoes (16 calories),  strawberries (14 calories)

*Caloric content of what I’ll really eat this summer at Dairy Queen: Dr. Pepper (210 calories), Beef chili and cheese foot long hot dog (670 calories), Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard (740 calories)

*Biking time to burn off 1670 calories: two hours, at 15 miles per hour

*Beach reading time to burn off 1670 calories: 11 hours, or two books

*Average Boston temperature in July: 74 degrees; in January: 29 degrees

*Month most likely to get married: June

*To get divorced: March

*1927 in The Girl Scout Handbook: first reference to “S’mores”, the summery treat of graham crackers, a chocolate bar and marshmallows roasted over an open fire

*60: average number of chirps per minute produced by a cricket

*Best summer blockbuster movie of all time: “Jaws”, 1975, per renegadecinema.com

*18: number of biblical references to “summer"

*Saddest summer scripture of all: “The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.”      --Jeremiah 8:20

But not yet.  Summer is still here. Summer will save us.  Bring it on.  Thank you God!  Happy Summer!