Labor Day weekend

This coming weekend is Labor Day weekend.  Its still 90 degrees outside but people are already filling Facebook with 'end of summer' posts and pumpkin spice everything.

I predict this will be a very low-key Labor Day weekend for us.  We don't have any weekend guests staying with us and we've not been invited to any pool parties or cookouts.  I suggested to Spouse that we fire up the grill and invite just a few friends over but he didn't want to.

I have to work on Sat and have a couple of showings on Sun morning, but am off the rest of Sun and Mon.  Of course the weather on Sun is calling for intermittent thunderstorms, so it won't be a good beach day.  Mon looks fine though.

There will likely be a lot of folks here in town for their 'last beach weekend of the summer'.  Insert me rolling my eyes.  Trust me, there will be a lot more beach weekends before summer weather is gone.  We often enjoy an Indian Summer, and I can remember 1 year where we were still sitting on the beach the 1st weekend in Nov.

Labor Day weekend does mark the end of the tourist season here, so starting next week it'll be easier for us locals to get into restaurants.

Summertime

...and the livin' is easy.

My boys relaxing and enjoying the sites and smells of the yard from the comfort of the porch yesterday.

And the livin' is easy

After what seemed like the rainiest Spring in years, we finally had some nice sunny days last week.  Sat night Steven & Thad came over and we ate dinner on the porch.  Yesterday morning Spouse & I enjoyed a peaceful morning sitting on the back porch with our coffee and our dogs.  As you can see, Marvin did what he does best.

We did a few things around the house and then got ready to go to the beach for the 1st time this year!  It got pretty darn warm outside, but of course when you're sitting on the beach you get the cool breeze off the water so it actually felt perfect.  

We sat and relaxed for a while, went for a walk, and chatted with a few friends we ran into.  It was a great day!  Later we showered and met Steven & Thad for dinner.

Happy 1st day of summer!!  

Yep, today is the official 1st day of summer.  I hope its a great one for us all.  Spouse & I have no travel/vacation plans for the summer since its not a good time for me to be away from work.  I'm a realtor in a resort area, so summer is busy here.  But we will have summer weekend visitors, and we'll spend as many days on the beach as we can.

What are your summer plans?

It begins...

Our little historic seaside village is idyllic and quiet 9 months out of the year.  We enjoy a really great quality of life here. 

But Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of the summer tourist season here where the population doubles or triples for 3 months.  We're just over 100 miles from Washington DC so we get a lot of beach vacationers from the metro DC area as well as from MD, PA, NJ, and NY.

Lots of locals dread this weekend and the traffic congestion and restaurant lines that come along with it.  Its true that we have to double the amount of time it takes to get places, especially on the weekends, due to the traffic.  But if you've ever lived in the metro DC area you'll hardly bat an eye at the traffic congestion here.  As I've said many times "Even the worst traffic here is better than an average day in DC".

But I don't dread this weekend at all!  I understand that the tourist dollars from these 3 months are the reason we have the variety and quantity of restaurants and stores we get to enjoy year round.  I also like the energy that the tourists bring.  They're on vacation, they're happy!

So today I say "Welcome!" to the start of the summer tourist season, and "Welcome!" to the tourists too.  I hope they enjoy themselves and come back again and again.

Mild weather

This week has been uncharacteriscally mild here in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Typically at this time of year (mid-August) the daytime temperatures would be in the upper-80s to mid-90s and the humidity level would be very high, producing a 'sauna' effect.  We also refer to this time as the 'dog days of summer'.

But every day this week the temperatures have been in the upper-70s to low-80s and the humidity has been almost non-existent.  Spouse and Marvin and I have had dinner out on the screened porch several times and even slept with the bedroom windows partially opened.  

Not that I'm complaining - its been fantastic - but it does make you a little leery.  Does this mean we're going to be blasted by a heat wave at the end of the month??  Or does this mean we're going to have another colder-than-usual winter??

I'm going to try and not over-think it, but instead, just enjoy it.

Labor Day

Many people look at Labor Day as the end of summer, and this irritates me.

It may feel like the end of summer if you live in North Dakota or Toronto, but for most of the USA it is still summer-like weather.  Indeed, even the official calendar indicates that fall doesn't begin until Sept 22.

So can we PLEASE stop talking about how 'summer is over' just because its Labor Day???

Thank you, and enjoy your Labor Day festivities!

Sounds of summer

Everyone knows that a song can transport you to a different place, mood, or decade. Likely all of us have heard a song and then said out loud "Wow, this reminds me of my senior year in high school".

To this day whenever I hear The Carpenters I think of the many weekends Spouse & I listened to Carpenters Classics, Vol 2 as we cleaned, painted, and fixed up our very 1st house together.

I remember exactly where I was the 1st time I heard Madonna sing "Lucky Star" on the radio. I thought she was African American. I knew she would become a star.

Now that the weather has turned and I can no longer deny the end of summer and beginning of fall, I think back on the sounds of summer 2010 and the songs that will someday remind me of the great, great summer I've had.

Bad Romance

Bulletproof

Happiness

In the future when I hear these songs I will be taken back to the summer of 2010 when I spent every weekend at the beach with friends, when I danced my butt off at Mandance, when I drove the convertible with the top down and the radio volume up, when I claimed this summer as mine.

Crush du Jour: Ari Levanael