Aug 20 2009
Summer 2009 in Review
It’s been a funny kind of summer. At the end of every year, is the recycling of news that tries to put what is going on now – RIGHT NOW – into a larger context of twelve months. But that is really so much hoopla, with questionable value to the smaller stories affecting our day-to-day lives little anyway.
So much of what living here year-round is wrapped up in the ten weeks in the center of the calendar, that it seems proper to give summer its own cursory analysis. Good or bad, there are equal chances that these observations will have any impact.
I’m giving this summer a mixed review. For one, I didn’t travel nearly as much as I said I would, which is typical and therefore predictable. This is summer on Cape Cod, the time locals make money. Leaving the Cape means leaving the chance to make money – it cannot be swapped out for a week in, say, November.
Still, I hold out hope for the end of August. The combination of the town’s stellar morning and afternoon summer camp programs, which have provided Sofie (and her single dad) with a chock-o-block schedule, end mid-month. The interregnum until the beginning of school forces me to be a little creative. Part of that will involve a trip or two within a drivable 500-mile radius. DC? Mt. Washington? Maine?
This prompts a look at the long-range forecast… which brings us to the weather this summer. Remarkable, to put it mildly. I remember a summer here in my high school years, when it rained 20 out of 30 days in June, and the other ten days were cloudy. Everything that had begun to bloom in May just withered. Vegetables turned yellow and rotted in the garden. I reference this to put this summer in perspective.
With the long, bitter cold of this winter, I had a feeling that this was going to be a rainier, milder summer. The ocean, which controls much of our weather here, was chilled a tad too much six months ago, and retained it through this season. The hottest it got in Chatham, I think, was about the tenth of August, when it hit 85 at our house. Otherwise, it was mostly in the 70’s all summer. And always threatening rain clouds every other day.
On the other hand, I haven’t seen a brown lawn. Everything is lush – the sort of gratuitous green that can only come from months of warmth AND moisture. We just don’t get that here. The small thornless blackberries I planted in May are four feet tall now, and sporting what look to be an endless crop of fruit. This is going to be a huge year for anyone with apple or other fruit trees. In turn, that’s going to mean plenty of fat, happy woodland critters this winter.
Speaking of happy critters, I wonder about the double economic boon of the rain. No, I am not talking about people not going to the beach, but instead going shopping. By all accounts, the national economy continues to change tourists’ spending habit in the direction of window shopping ONLY.
Instead, all this rain means more work for landscapers. If you were in the business, you could count on the end of July and beginning of August (with the summertime drought) to finally catch up non-grass mowing tasks. Maybe get equipment repaired mid-season. Instead, it has been go, go, go. The grass is growing faster than ever, it seems, even the unfertilized ones. That’s cash directly into the pockets of local working people.
And for those people who do not have their sprinklers set automatically to go off even when it is raining, this summer’s weather means a lower water bill. A modest boon, really, but again more money in the pockets of the public. Perhaps spent in the local economy (good), put in the bank (better), or used to pay down debt (BEST).
So, on balance, I can’t completely complain about this summer. Sure, our camping trip out to South Beach resulted in a night of sleeping in the fog, waking up in the fog, navigating our way home in the fog, and after two weeks, I still can feel that cold, damp still cramping my back.
On the other hand, the yard looks great. Flowers are just going crazy. Everyone seems to be busy as ever. I would have preferred it all a little drier, a little sunnier, a little warmer – consistently. But if, say, we got this one out of every four years, I wouldn’t mind. After all, I have my eyes on planting a big new bed of black raspberry bushes.
Monteiro was at her lab when she received the news of being chosen for the trip.
