(Photo credit: Olga)
Heat, ma’am! it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones.
~Sydney Smith, Lady Holland’s Memoir
It is June 21st and Summer is officially upon us. This year the date holds no special magic, Summer temperatures roughly pushed Spring aside many weeks ago. How ironic then that today, at least in my corner of the world, the high temperature is predicted to be 81 degrees and it is an absolutely gorgeous Spring-like morning? No matter the heat or humidity, Summertime has begun. And with the seasonal change comes a desire to make lists, set goals, plan events. I know everyone is not like this and I find no fault in you if that be the case. I have come to acknowledge that I am a seasonal list maker and a voyeur when it comes to the lists of others.
Recently Debi posted her Summer Goals. I laughed and cried with her as I read it, seeing the reflection of a kindred spirit in her desire to accomplish a mountain of tasks–some pleasant and some that can only be defined as “work”–while acknowledging that Summer is fleeting and in the end much will be left undone. Her bold foray into Summer list-making touched off my own mental list which will now be made public, so that you too can have your chance to scoff at the kind of goal-setting dementia whose blame I lay squarely at the feet of the hot Summer sun.
(Photo Credit: Stitch)
Let books be your dining table,
And you shall be full of delights
Let them be your mattress
And you shall sleep restful nights.
~Author Unknown
When it comes to reading I practice little structure to begin with, but in Summertime my reading whims are really and truly all over the map. In the past that has bothered me only when it leads to a series of starts and stops and partial reads. This year I am giving myself permission to be blown about on the hot Summer winds. I will allow myself to feel perfect contentment even if I find myself reading a work of science fiction, a mystery, a collection of short stories, a book of essays, and books on home improvement all at the same time and I never actually complete a one of them during the Summer months. I will blindly and blissfully follow my whims until September 1st, when the start of the R.I.P. Challenge will naturally turn my heart and my reading desires to more gothic ends.
It wouldn’t be a post about Summer Goals, however, if I did not include a reading list in some form or fashion. So here are a handful of books that I have heard whispering to me since the first 90+ degree day slapped the look of Spring whimsy from my face:
1. Dune by Frank Herbert. [Completed 7/23/11] It has become something of a running joke to include this on my list each summer as I never get to it. Still, I hold out hope that one day I will succeed in reading what is sure to be a favorite book. After all, I enjoy the film versions and the book has to be much better, right?
2. Leviathan Wakes by S.A. Corey (actually a collaboration by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck). Lots of positive buzz about this one. Aidan Moher’s review on the Tor website has finally sealed the deal for me. I’m first in line on the library queue.
3. A World Out of Time by Larry Niven. [Completed 6/28/11] Re-read. We were discussing it at the Classic Science Fiction Book Club. It has been a favorite since my early adolescence and it was time. I started it last Tuesday while staking out my claim on seats for the Fellowship of the Ring event. I will be repeating the ritual while awaiting The Two Towers this evening.
4. One of the Anne books or something else by L.M. Montgomery. Summer feels like Anne of Green Gables time.
5. The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry. Re-read. I read this the first time in the spring/summer, never gave it a proper review, and have wanted to read it again ever since turning the last page.
6. Goldfinger by Ian Fleming. This is the next book in the series and I have been longing to return to the world of Fleming’s James Bond after starting the series when the film version of Casino Royale was released.
7. Rule 34 by Charles Stross[Despite liking parts of this book I wasn’t digging the “depraved sex” angle. Gave up on it] This is the follow up novel to Halting State, which I loved. It will be released in early July. Can’t wait.
8. The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris by John Baxter. It is the fault of one of the Bad Bloggers out there that this book is on my private Amazon “Books to Buy” wishlist. Old age…no, let me correct that…the Summer heat has caused me to forget who deserves the blame. But you know who you are. Feel free to take credit.
Time will tell whether or not I start, finish, or do not even look twice at the books on this list, but I am looking forward to the act of reading over these warm months. I am also pleased that Kailana and I will be picking some book (from a list already in discussion) for a Summer Buddy Read.
(Photo Credit: Mike McCune)
Then followed that beautiful season… Summer….
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
As the sun rose on 2011 I posted a few health-related resolutions. I would be fudging the truth if I put down in print that I was faithfully adhering to these resolutions. The good news is that I have not cast them all by the wayside either.
I have been drinking much more water and much less pop, a goal helped enormously by our move to a new building with an ice machine in the break room. I have no problem drinking water all day long if I can keep it ice cold.
I have been walking the dog but have not done so with the kind of consistency that will lead to improved health. I am determined to light a fire under my tushie in this regard during the summer months. It is cool enough in the morning and at night to get out and enjoy the sights and sounds of the neighborhood in Summer.
I will go to the local Farmer’s Market and/or local Fruit/Veggie stand at least once per week. This may be a bit of a cheat as I love fresh grown fruits and vegetables. Mmmmm….
I will go to the downtown City Market at least twice during the summer. Good food, great people-watching, and always a relaxing time with the family. Well worth the drive.
(Update–Trip #1 to City Market: 7/9/11)
I will make Mary’s homemade salsa recipe more than one time this summer. I love this salsa and yet last year I only recall making it one time. I hang my head in shame.
(Update: First batch of Salsa, 7/9/11. Yum!!!)
(Second batch: 7/16/11)
(Photo Credit: SFDenverLV)
Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.
~Sam Keen
It is far too easy to allow the legitimate double excuse of excessive egg-frying-on-the-sidewalk heat and clothes-drenching humidity to stifle Summer creativity and/or work. Many years ago I made the commitment to myself to no longer find myself on the back end of summer in a daze, wondering what happened to a season in which I read little, exercised none, and accomplished nothing of note. Each and every summer I try to improve on the idea of enjoying every moment. Summer is not my favorite time of year, but “living” is a favorite activity and I will do so.
I will continue work on the art project I started a few weeks back and will see it through to completion, even if I end up hating the end results.
I will repaint my living room and my sun room and will begin the redecorating process that I envisioned at the start of the year.
I will begin to fill my Flickr page with my own photographic work and will not allow self-criticism to stop me from showing my work. After all, it is only a hobby and if I practice it and put my stuff out there I am bound to learn and improve and increase my satisfaction.
(Update: Added three of my photo pieces to Flickr, 7/21/11)
I will write more personal essay styled posts. This is something I have done on rare occasions and I made a commitment to myself that this would increase with the changes to my website. Well, the changes have been made, so it is time to start keeping my personal promises.
(Update: Personal Essay Post #1)
____________________
I would love to know what, if any, summer plans you have. Be it reading plans, vacation plans, work plans, goals or ideas for expressing your creativity. I hope that each and every one of you have a magical and memorable summer and I look forward to sharing the season with you. And in the midst of all of these goals I commit to times of rest and relaxation with family and friends. I hope you do the same.
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.
~John Lubbock
Good luck on your goals, Carl! Just as long as you remember summer is supposed to be fun, too. 🙂 I look forward to our buddy read! You forgot reread Enchanted Night on your list of goals for the summer… 🙂
Kailana: For me this is all about having fun anyway, which is why my goals (at least in my mind) look suspiciously not very “goal-like”. Ha! I tried not to include any of our potential buddy reads (except Dune, for its irony) just because I wanted to wait to see what we agree on reading. The reality is that I will be reading it one hot summer night no matter what, so I really should have included it.
Okay, I’m game, but not on my blog, I’ll do it right here.
– finish organizing the garage (it’s about 80% done now)
– wash all the window screens
– prune the Lilacs now that they are done blooming
– prune the Forsythia ditto (should have been done a month ago, but it was still rainy)
– repair drip watering system on the deck (now I have to pull a hose up from below)
– visit a local public garden
– eat more fruit and less meat
– read: 3 Rex Stout Nero Wolfe books, 2 SF books (Leviathin Wakes and Hex), 2 fantasy books (Mistborn vol. 1 and Damned Busters), 1 general fiction novel by an author I’ve never read, probably Flannery O’Connor, Saul Bellow or maybe I’ll try The Stone Raft by Jose Saramago, finish 1 of 2 non-fiction books of essays that are partially read.
– walk a lot more
– clean and polish all the wood furniture in the house (there is a LOT of it)
That feels like enough, don’t you think?
Oh, and I have one more for you, Carl: finish and review that Raymond Chandler book!
RkR: It didn’t surprise me at all to see you mention the Chandler book. I actually thought about it while making my list but didn’t want to set it in print at the risk of publicly disappointing you again. LOL!
Glad you put your list here. Not only do they sound like worthy goals, but if you get on them quickly enough then I can justify flying you in to Kansas City to take care of my mounting yard problems. 🙂
Jeff got Hex for Father’s Day and I am anxious for both him and you to get started so that I can get some feedback. It looks really good.
Great post, Carl. I really like the screwdriver picture. It just so happens that “living” is also a favorite activity of mine, too. 😉
Glad to see the Anne books on your list. Now that my daughter is here (named Avonlea, if you recall), I may have to actually give these books a shot some time. My wife raves about them. Or I could just wait and read them to Avonlea when she’s older and we can enjoy them together…
My reading list is a mixed bag with nothing definite. I plan to spend most of my time playing tennis and enjoying fatherhood.
Logan: No, I haven’t been to your site since the big announcement (oh Lord, please let me be right about this and not be getting early onset Alzheimer’s). That is SO COOL. Congrats, Happy late Father’s Day, and WOW!!! I love that you both named her after the Anne books. I will be visiting your blog soon!
Does your wife like the two Anne movies starring Megan Follows? Those are what got me hooked on the character in the first place and I loved reading the books afterwards. I also learned my love of Tennyson’s Lady of Shalott from the Anne films. By the way, I refuse to acknowledge the existence of the purported “third film” in the Anne series as it is ridiculous, doesn’t follow established storylines…and did I mention it is ridiculous? Suddenly Anne is some kind of spy. Ugh, I hate it so much. But what is to hate, it doesn’t exist?!?! 🙂
I was just telling my wife that we need to start playing tennis again. We used to do so all the time when we were newly married.
Uhm, I’m not sure what she likes as to on the screen. She’s got a DVD set, which I suppose contains the films, though it could be a miniseries, too? Not really sure.
I imagine it has all three films, which is shot in such a way that it is sort of a miniseries. Separately they are titled Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, and then some other monstrosity. Lately though they have been renamed and repackaged.
This had me smiling the whole way through! Okay, sometimes downright giggling. But no fair–I liked your list way better than my own! 😛 But I wish us both much luck in making whatever dents in our lists that we can make, and even more luck in remembering to enjoy it! You know, I think I need to make myself a little poster of your words: “but “living” is a favorite activity and I will do so.” LOVE THAT!
Also adore all the pics you picked for this post–they all just perfect. 😀
Uhhh…far better than my grammar. “They’re all just perfect.”
Thanks to Flickr and the Creative Commons License for the pics! Someday I hope to have a huge stock of my own photos to use for posts. I’ll have to strive to get this kind of quality, but that will be a fun goal.
Debi, the reason you liked my list more is that I saw yours and knew enough not to get mine to the point where I needed to type “I obviously hate myself” in my post title. LOL!
And feel free to use the saying. I need to keep it in mind myself now that I’ve written it.
I don’t care for summer but this post is bringing a smile to my face. Good luck with all of your summer goals. I’m hoping to write more essay-styled posts too.
I wasn’t kidding when I said summer wasn’t my favorite either, Vasilly, so I can relate to your own feelings about it. So strange that today was so cool and spring-like here. I hope it continues for a few days. Best wishes to you as well on your essay writing. Look forward to reading yours.
omg Carl.. I’ve been using photobucket for a few years now..i don’t even know how many photo’s I have up there! (more then one account heh)
I have 2 books on preorder..one I will read IMMEDIATELY the other I might have to hold for RIP ( Dragon’s Time: Dragonriders of Pern (The Dragonriders of Pern) Anne McCaffrey, Todd J. McCaffrey and
The Map of Time: A Novel Félix J Palma) Pern is a given :o) the summer will not pass without reading that book! I have soooo many others I want to read “now” *sigh* if there were only 2 or even 3 of me!
my only other summer plans are to spend as much time as possible in my apartment with the air at only 80 and a fan directly on me!
my dream for the summer will not happen but I can dream! And that would be to get to Kennedy Space Center to see the Star Trek Live thing going on (only for the summer) and to see the Cape Canaveral: Then & Now Tour (mostly about the original astronauts and flights to the moon)
I hope you and Mary have a fabulous summer!!!
Deslily: I’d love to see the Star Trek Live event myself. Keep up the dream!
I couldn’t imagine you ever holding off on reading a Pern book. I hope it is a well-written and exciting summer read for you. One of these days I’ll read the first one, I just know that I will.
Not sure I could deal with the air being set at 80. I’m such a wimp. Hope your summer is fabulous as well.
About the ANNE books, I’ve read the first 5. The series on PBS (available at library, here) is really excellent, highly recommended, as are the books. I sent them all to my niece a few years ago.
I’ve read all of the Anne books at least once and have read Anne of the Island, Anne’s House of Dreams, Anne of Windy Poplars and Rainbow Valley at least twice each if not more. My copy of Rainbow Valley has a Robert McGinnis cover. Oddly enough I bought it before I really knew who he was but picked it up in that version because I thought the cover was fantastic.
As for that reading plan, I’ve already gone off track, as I meant to say I’d read LITTLE FUZZY and then FUZZY NATION before I started that other stuff. I’m going to begin LITTLE FUZZY in about 5 minutes. Really.
Can’t wait for your thoughts on both. Haven’t read Little Fuzzy myself, but as you know I thoroughly enjoyed Fuzzy Nation.
Love this post!! I so need to make some summer goals for myself. It’s usually a season that sees me going into a funk, but I’m hoping to stay out of it this year! I’m going to see Matt in July and then a week with Debi in August!!!! As for Dune, I hope you have better luck with it than I did :p I just really disliked that book, lol. Best of luck with everything! Looking forward to seeing the progress 🙂
Wow, two trips in two months to spend time with people you care about! I’m jealous, and of course very happy for you too. I’m so glad you and Debi and her family get together regularly. It is really cool and I love reading about your visits with each other.
Did you like either of the Dune films?
Great post! I’m also not a fan of Summer, BUT, It’s redeeming quality for me is that I can get far more projects done than I can the rest of the year….and there are a lot of them 😀 Oh, BTW…that screwdriver/chisel pic is to die for!!! Never let self criticism stop you from doing something…In the words of the, (ever so wise) Madonna..”Express Yourself”…lol I know…of all the people I could pick…but really, just do it for *you* and have fun 😀
Kelly: Isn’t it? I wish I had taken it! Oh well, it provides inspirational fuel, which is always a good thing.
I’m certainly trying to get more done in the summer, something that has not always been the case. Over the last few years I’ve taught myself to be more cognizant of time passing and not allowing myself to go into total hibernation mode during the heat of summer.
Oh great, now I’m going to have *that* song stuck in my head all day! LOL!
Oh Carl, you are so ambitious! I myself am fond of lists but usually stick to topical lists – things to read, fix it projects on the house etc. Summer to me is a quiet time. I have no family on island during the summer, restaurants and shops close, organized social activities cease, snow birds are long gone and even full time residents try to flee for at least a month or two. It is warm, humid, the Sahara dust makes it hazy, tradewinds are gone (although sometimes there is a hurricane threat). Most places, including my house, do not have air conditioning. Instead of feeling compelled to do chores and be productive with my spare time, keeping cool becomes an actual activity and lounging by the pool becomes justified indolence. The advantage of justified indolence however is that it is a great time to read. So in the spirit of indolence I am not going to make a list, or even set goals but I will set forth a few vague intentions.
I have been doing well with exercising and the fact that it is now light very early in the morning makes it easier so I intend to keep on exercising. I also intend to keep on eating healthy – especially as it is too hot to cook. I made the mistake of turning the oven on last night – wont make that mistake again until November. I always associate summer reading with the classics because when I was in college I often took a literature course or two when I was home during the summer for fun and to rack up a couple extra credits. I don’t think I will read any classics but I would like to keep working on my Reading Deliberately list I created at the beginning of the year. Candidates are the Goldbug Variation, the Sound and the Fury and Satanic Verses but I also intend to read whatever strikes my fancy. Good luck with your summer goals Carl!
Thank you, and good luck with your “justified indolence”. I would have the same focus were I in your circumstances. No air conditioning. Not sure I could handle that. Our air conditioning used to be very sub-par in our house and we couldn’t turn on the oven in the summer either or we suffered for it. Thankfully we got a complete overhaul a few years back and it works so much better now.
I’m with you on the reading Dune. It is my husband’s favourite book and he wants me to read it because he’s convinced I’ll love it. I’m sure I will – but I never seem to get to it.
Joanne: I had the same experience with my wife and To Kill a Mockingbird. After years of her gentle persistence I finally read it. And you know what? She was right to consider it a favorite. I loved it. Hope we both have a similar experience with Dune when we get to it.