I actually had a different post in mind for today, but current events have made me not want to write about that particular topic just now. Instead, let’s do the Sunday Stealing, which this week is about summertime stuff. (Roger did this one too, as always, but I’m actually not going to read his answers until I’ve written mine!)
1. What is the hottest temperature you’ve seen this summer so far?
We were in the 90s for a few days last month. That was enough to make me wilt! If you don’t like your summers super hot, Buffalo’s a good place to live. We have never once hit 100 degrees since they started keep those records, back whenever it was that they started recording that stuff. With climate change ongoing I don’t know how realistic it is to think that record is going to stand, but there it is. The same breezes off Lake Erie that can make the snow really brutal in the cold months also keeps it from hitting the century mark, so there’s that. I’ve also availed myself of the lake breezes by going to the Buffalo Outer Harbor much more often this year for my photography walks.
I am actually better at coping with heat than I used to be, which I find very interesting. The Wife used to be the one who did well in heat where I started getting salty anytime it went above 78 degrees, and I used to basically retire overalls from June through mid-September. Now, I find I can be outside relatively comfortably well into the 80s (especially if there’s a breeze), and I am still wearing overalls constantly. In fact, I find that the lack of a tight waistband on overalls makes them in fact cooler.
Here I am, by the way, at Knox Farm State Park earlier this very day! It’s mid-80s today, so…yeah.
2. What is your favorite summer beverage?
Non-alcoholically, I have become a huge fan of sparkling water in recent years, and I drink tons of the stuff. It keeps me hydrated and helps satisfy my urge for something fizzy (I love fizz). There are more and more flavors coming out now, which is lovely. I have recently discovered that a half-lemonade, half-lemon sparkling water mix approximates sparkling lemonade, so that gives me a cheaper option for something I like a great deal.
In terms of booze and beer, I love the shandy beers that are popular now; Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy (beer with lemonade) is the heavy hitter on the market, but I’ve been mad at Leinenkugel for a while now, so I’ve switched to Narragansett’s version.
(Why was I mad at Leinenkugel? Because they discontinued my favorite product of theirs, Sunset Wheat, and refused to bring it back…but I’ve just Googled it and apparently they did bring it back? Hmmmm. I’ll have to go have a look next time I’m at Consumer’s Beverages.)
3. Have you seen any fireflies/lightning bugs yet? Cicadas?
I haven’t seen cicadas, but I’ve sure heard them! I’ve seen fireflies, though. They live in the woods out back and they are magical.
4. What are the last 3 things you bought online?
OK, that doesn’t have anything to do with summer! But, I bought two pairs of vintage overalls recently (they’re still in shipment) and a purple mandarin-collar dress shirt to go with the yellow and pink ones that I already own.
5. Where do locals go to cool off?
Probably the beaches of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, local streams and lakes for various frolicking, and onto the waters themselves–lots of boats around here!
6. Where did you buy your last postcard and what was on the pc?
I have no earthly idea.
7. What’s your favorite summertime scent?
The aroma of the corn on the cob when you open the wax paper after cooking. The charcoal and the meat on it. Freshly-mown grass is always a lovely scent. We have milkweed growing out front that we refuse to remove because it’s good for caterpillars; that stuff smells wonderful when it’s flowering. And in the very early summer–actually, it’s late spring–the blooming lilacs.
Late summer is when the scents of harvest start to take over….
8. What kind of a/c do you have – central, room, fans only, chillers, none and what temperature do you set it to?
We have central air, and honestly, I can’t function without it. What I said above about me being able to deal with higher temps than I used to doesn’t mean that I want to deal with higher temps. I need the inside of the house to be a refuge from intense heat. We set it to 68 overnight and 72 during the day. Sometimes, when it’s really hot and the AC runs more than it normally does, the coil will actually ice up. I notice that when I think, “Huh, the AC’s running but it sure seems warm in here,” and when I check the vents, nothing is coming out. When that happens I switch the fans from “Auto” to “Run” and then turn off the AC, so the fans can blow air across the iced-up coil and melt away the ice; then, when I can feel air issuing forth from the ducts again, I turn the AC back on.
We also have fans to assist with the air circulation, and I run one aimed at me overnight. I like the white noise, and it helps keep me cool overnight.
9. Do you have a summer vacation planned and if so, where are you really going??
Yes, and nowhere.
This has been a rough year for vacations. All the health problems with my parents last year, that led to mom’s passing and some ongoing stuff with Dad that I haven’t written about yet (and I’m not sure if or when I plan to do so), meant that I hit January with three vacation days left to use before my next renewal.
My vacation time renews on July 30.
So, yeah: I’ve basically had to go a full seven months without an actual vacation. That has been really tough. (And no, I do not for one second hold this against my employer in any way. It was just the unfortunate way that particular cookie happened to crumble this year.) So, I promise you, I have a full eight-day vacation scheduled to start almost immediately upon the arrival of August. I don’t usually take vacations that long, but this time I’m going to, because my brain is just increasingly mush. We’ll probably go to the County Fair a time or two, and I’m hoping to schedule a full day of street and architecture photography in the City of Buffalo, but no trips planned at this point.
10. What are your favorite summer activities?
I don’t know that I have any activities that are specifically summer activities! I love hiking year-round, and cooking year-round, and all the rest of it. Locations can be summer only: Buffalo’s Outer Harbor, for instance, is a lot less interesting when the boats aren’t there…but I’m not even sure I’m right about that. Various festivals, though–the Sterling Renaissance Festival, the Erie County Fair–are summertime staples.
11. What’s your favorite summertime food?
Peaches, fresh tomatoes. We’re coming up on the season for our actual favorite summer-time meal: BLTs and corn on the cob. Corn used to be a butter-and-salt-always affair, but the last few years we’ve discovered Mexican Street Corn, which is amazing stuff. A bit filling and rich, though! Fresh fruit salads are always wonderful.
Oh, and the local black raspberries. I need to figure out how to get a bush of those going. That’s the flavor of childhood, for me. In the house I mainly grew up in, there was a hedgerow along the property, and in that hedgerow were several bushes of these things. Picking them and eating them right off the bush? That’s where I’m transported when I get to eat these. I found a vendor selling them at the Farmers Market yesterday, and tonight I’ll be enjoying them with some vanilla ice cream. A lovely way to serve them, but…it’s not quite picking them and consuming them right off the bush.
12. Did you ever go to summer school?
Nope!
13. What’s your favorite summertime memory?
Hooo boy, that’s a tough one. I’m honestly not sure I have one. Lots of competition for that title, I must say.
14. Do you like fireworks?
Meh. I do like the way professional fireworks look, but the noise and smoke is awful and it does not make for a happy evening with the dogs. (Currently Carla is the one really affected by them; Hobbes doesn’t seem to react much, but he’s young. Cane got worse and worse with fireworks as he aged.)
15. How do you feel about the longer days of summer?
Heh! I’ve ranted many a time about this very subject on various social media platforms. The longer days themselves are fine, and they come naturally. What I seriously dislike is our artificial pushing of that natural development through Daylight Saving Time. The switch from one clock setting to the next always screws me up for a week, and the Spring Forward one is always brutal. Also, we’ve pushed the Fall Back one so far back that now it seems like we just leap into the darkest time of year in one fell swoop. I do not like this. I also do not like it being light enough outside to read at 9:30pm still; believe it or not, I actually like circadian rhythms and I like darkness when it’s supposed to come. So, the longer days? Great! Helping them along with a dumb policy that is of no actual benefit to anyone? Ugh!
OK, those are my answers. Time to go read Roger’s!
