DC's View: All Things Summer

By DC Cueva

@DC408dxtr

Well, if you can tell by the temperatures you're seeing on your barometer or by how it looks outside your window, then you can easily notice it. We've just celebrated Memorial Day this past week, and this, along with the preceding Friday & weekend, marked the unofficial start of summer in the United States. Though summer itself won't officially begin until the summer solstice, aka the longest day of the year, on June 21st, it felt like the beginning of it last weekend with barbecues, sporting events, and big-time blockbuster movies. Plus, summer has begun for many students college wrapping up and finals still to come for others for those in school, and the day kids become teens and teens become adults in that coming of age moment known as graduation taking place.

   Summer is one of my favorite times of the year, and it's something I look forward to every year the same way I look forward to my birthday in November and the ensuing holiday season that comes after. It's the time where we get to wash those long-sleeves and eventually dust off those shorts that I'll be wearing more often when I go out, as well as wearing a tank top every day in my house. It's also the time where I change my wallet over from one my dad gave me to another from my bro-in-law. And there's nothing for me like watching the kids enjoy themselves at the park w/ no school to worry and seeing them pass out the lemonade.

In it's Wikipedia entry, Summer is listed as "the warmest of the four temperate seasons, falling between spring and autumn." It is, of course, when the weather is at is hottest, the days are the longest, and staying hydrated & cool is a must. Depending upon where you are in the world, summer season varies: it's June, July and August in the northern hemisphere, or December, January and February south of the equator, when of course those here are freezing. And if you are in Ireland or China, the summer begins in May and ends in August. In you're in southern or Southeast Asia, summer typically lasts from March to May/early June, coinciding with the monsoon season.

   Here this past weekend, the summer season kicked off on Memorial Day weekend in this last weekend of May, and concludes on Labor Day weekend in the first weekend of September. And if you're in Canada, you typically get a head start on us with Victoria Day one week before in the 3rd weekend of May. Anyway, I would sometimes think of the 104 days of the summer period as sort of like an extended weekend, with May & June being like a Friday, July being like a Saturday, and August to Labor Day being like a Sunday. And for the longer days of sunlight, for me I feel that the afternoon hours would be extended a couple hours and the evening doesn't start until about 8 or 9pm.

For weather, this is typically associated with hot summer days & nights and scorching heat, but it is also synonymous with rainy weather, and it's also severe weather season in most of the United States. Not too long from now, it will be hurricane season and if you're in by the Atlantic Ocean, it's also the time to get prepared for what could potentially happen when a system develops in the Ocean and stretches westward, and often it puts entire regions in panic mode. It's the same thing in most of the country inland extending eastward from the Rocky Mountains, where tornadoes, hail, strong winds and severe storms take hold on most of the country.

   But if you're here in California where I'm situated in, we have a Mediterranean climate that sees relatively low rainfall compared with other parts of the U.S., and where the storm season here is concentrated on late autumn, winter and early spring. Thanks to the jet stream that goes northward in late spring, this climate also produces a dry summer where there's usually no significant rainfall, other than the occasional drizzle that comes with the overnight fog. And you can see why people here often say California is the best place on earth all year long and the folks at the California Tourism Bureau & chambers of commerce often brag about the millions of people who visit this state during the summer.

Of course, schools, colleges and universities have a break for summer vacation to allow their students to take advantage of the warm weather and long days. As a kid, I always relished those times in June, July & August where I could sometimes go to sleep late and sleep in, and wake up a little bit late and watch The Price is Right, in addition to what we all did during our youth.

   According to some, the origins of summer vacation traces back to agriculture and during a time after settlement that most of the United States was living on farm land. And many believe that the summer break was necessary for the kids to help with planting and harvesting crops. Once upon a time in the 1800s, school was held year round, but thanks to population growth, improvements in transportation & building technologies and meeting the demand for wealthy families to have time off in the sun, the 9-month educational schedule with a summer's break became standard.

   The drawbacks in this from an educational standpoint is "summer brain drain," where some students are so caught up in summer they eventually lose some academic skills & knowledge after 2-3 months away, unless of course they take some summer school. For those who do take those classes, which I did a couple times in elementary to keep myself busy and one time in junior high for just advancement, they're taken either to make up those credits for those who were absent or didn't do well in the normal year, or for others to advance progress to a degree & lighten the class load in the year ahead.

   And for those college students, and high school teenagers as well, who prefer to not sit around at home all day or are enjoying themselves out of home, they are just getting a summer job in recreational industries or working at the store or restaurant down the street to earn that cash and keep themselves busy during the three months. I remember my sister did some of that during her summers.

For summer activities, it's endless. People no doubt take advantage of spending more times outdoors. Everywhere you go during these three months, you can see people traveling out to the beach and others enjoy a picnic in the park. A multitude of sports from basketball, beach volleyball and golf to baseball, tennis and skateboarding is played, and of course swimming, water skiing & other water sports too. Only one of the four major sports takes place, at least for real, during the bulk of this time and that is MLB baseball, though there's lots of buzz surrounding NFL training camp and NBA & NHL free agency. And of course, the Summer Olympics are held during the summer months every four years, and in between the quadrennial, the finals of the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament take place.

   Those two events bring in massive viewership in what is usually a low point in television viewing levels as schedules on the major networks reflect that by only scheduling reruns of popular shows between the end of the May sweeps period and the September start of the TV season, and generally scheduling cheap reality shows and limited replacement series, while cable networks schedule full new series to air during the same time frame. On the other end, this is the golden season for the music and film industries as they usually have higher profits during the summer than during other times of the calendar year, and accordingly they plan their summer hits, big concert tours and blockbuster movies. Nothing like parking lots being full at movie theaters and outdoor amphitheaters during these three months.
   And what would any talk about summer be without mentioning travel? As most kids and college students are on their summer vacation - save for those summer schoolers, this is when travel and vacation time reaches its apex, with families and large throngs of people take advantage of those bargains to travel to places all around the world and all across North America, with a large volume of travel on a summer weekend mirrors the rush of those Thanksgiving week treks. Over the years, I have traveled to L.A., New York, Hawaii, the Philippines, and recently to Las Vegas. Of late, my parents have used this travel period to travel overseas either on a cruise or via train to places all throughout Europe and bringing back some very good souvenirs & pictures to post on their Facebook.

There's nothing like it: three months of red-hot heat, great movies, awesome music, travel, sports and so much more. If you're in California like me, you don't even have to worry about bringing an umbrella and you would only need a long sleeve if you're going up to the City here (there's the well-known saying "the coldest summer I ever spent was in San Francisco"). The only other times of year I look forward with great anticipation, not counting the starts to a sports season, are my birthday in November and the holidays that come a week or so after. Since I've been a youngster, I always look forward to summer, and it never gets old enjoying the warm weather & everything that comes with it.

Don't forget to check me out here on DCBLOG, where I offer occasional posts on here of things outside of what I'm most passionate about: entertainment and sports. If you're a fan of MTV's The Challenge and is riveted by the current season, Free Agents, bookmark us for blogs on the snow, including our SocialPulse diaries of episode tweets as the cast & fans watch them. And tomorrow, I'll be celebrating my first birthday on here with some reflection, plus this week's Free Agents SP journal.

   Follow me on Twitter @DC408dxtr for twitter alerts to my blog posts and interviews & articles with the cast, along with conversations that I have with them. And check out my live twitter hub, DCNOW at @DC408DxNow, for live tweets of shows, sports and events, including Free Agents on Thursdays.

   For now, hope you enjoyed my look at All Things Summer. And until I join here tomorrow for our DCBLOG Birthday Extravaganza, thanks for reading, have fun and stay cool. See you then.

- DC

Sources:

Wikipedia: Summer, Summer Vacation, Summer Jobs, Summer School