Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘summer’

I’ve never enjoyed the heat, nor the humidity. Most people I know think I’m crazy, but I’ll happily take a bright, snowy winter wonderland day over a hot, sticky summer sizzler anytime.

The heat has many effects on me, none of them pleasant. Sunburn, dizziness, general lethargy… and laziness. The kind that leads me to sit in a vegetative state in front of the fan, trying not to move, avoiding anything that involves work or even mental exercise.

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, yes, I’m actually trying to justify my lack of blogging by claiming heat exhaustion.

Okay, it’s a lame excuse. But, really, it’s just too hot outside to get all hot and bothered about the news lately. Even though there’s plenty of it to stress about, to be sure. But lately, I can’t help but feel that writing about it is serving no practical purpose other than self-agitation.

Never fear: I’ll be back to my usual ranting and raving self as soon as it cools down a bit. Meanwhile, back to my summer of barbecues, terraces, cold drinks and mental laziness. I highly recommend it.

Hard to believe that less than a week ago, we were wading through a snowstorm in coats and boots. Summer has arrived in full force!

The warm, sunny weather has brought the entire city out from hibernation, literally overnight. The cafés and restaurants have opened their terraces, the bicycles have come out of storage, the parks and streets are full of people shopping, mingling, or simply out enjoying the weather.

It’s always hard to predict exactly when this will happen, but it’s nearly always my favourite time of year, and reminds me how lucky I am to live in possibly the greatest city on earth. Enjoy!

Today was rainy and dreary. But unlike a summer shower, today’s rain came with a chill in the air that felt an awful lot like, dare I say, fall.

One week till Labour Day. Seems summer is just about over.

Sorry for the lack of weightier posts since my return to blogging. You surf over here looking for Gilad Shalit or North Korea, and instead you get treated to googling and hockey talk.

Well, I make no apologies, but I do have plenty of good excuses.

For one thing, it’s bloody hot outside and, by extension, in here. Too hot to think, let alone rant.

For another, I’m still not caught up on the main news headlines since I’ve been away, let alone on all the zillions of bloggers who have been covering them. The travel bubble is all-encompassing, and it’s ironically easier to learn about what’s going on “out there” while “in here”.

Besides, the news is kind of like a bad soap opera: stop reading it for a few months and pick it up again, and you’ll realize that nothing much has changed. Same shit, different day. Frankly, it’s exhausting.

So I’ll probably be blogging about fluff for a while yet. But hey, it’s summer, we can all use a little lighter fare these days, right? If not, you know where to go for your servings of meat.

Summer’s here with a vengeance.

At the moment it’s 32 degrees with 52% humidity. Yesterday was even hotter and more humid.

Things to do on an insanely hot weekend to keep cool:

• Sit in front of the floor fan and try not to move.
• Take 4 showers a day cause the minute you get out of one, you need another.
• Go to Calories (where it’s air-conditioned) and order two frozen lemonades, drink them fast and get brain freeze.
• Go to a Blue Rodeo concert – indoors!
• Sit in Marieke’s living room with the A/C on and play with her cats.
• Two words: Ben & Jerry’s.

Things that I was probably insane to have done in this heat:

• A 5 kilometer walk around Westmount Park to raise money for spinal cord injuries.
• Cooking pancakes for breakfast.
• Blow-drying my hair after a shower.
• Spend even a short amount of time in the sun (I don’t tan, I burn).
• Attempt to sleep at night in my top-floor apartment with no air conditioning and very little breeze.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy it’s summer. I just wish it was a little less intense.

Update: Dan led me to notice a typo in the original post – that should’ve said 82% humidity, not 52%. According to the weather report, the temperature felt more like 40 degrees than 32. Here’s hoping things cool down a little so I can finally get some sleep.

Summer’s almost here and that means festival season in Montreal is nearly upon us again. The Jazz Festival starts in just over a month, and I’m looking forward to taking in some free outdoor shows. The Comedy Festival is always good for some laughs; so far I’ve got my tickets for the Nasty Show and the Aussie and Kiwi show.

I must say I love living in a city like Montreal, where we have an endless string of world-class festivals and things to do. There’s no place quite like Montreal in the summertime. I know this sounds like a shameless advertisement, but every so often it occurs to me to be really really happy that I live here. I guess now is one of those times.

During this long weekend, I tried to spend as little time in front of a computer as possible (hence the lack of blogging).

But now it’s the most depressing day of the year: Tuesday after Labour Day. This means that summer is really over. The days are getting shorter, not longer. It’s too early to be hopeful for next summer. Everyone goes back to work, back to school, back to the grindstone. No more vacations or sunshine or lazy summer days until next year.

Grumble grumble.

It struck me yesterday how much I absolutely love this city in the summertime. Everyone emerges from hibernation, and it becomes a city of festivals, sidewalk cafes, street performances, and a general spirit of “joie de vive” that belies our underground winter gloom. Just walking around downtown, seeing everyone outside enjoying the night, keeps reminding me of just how good we’ve got it here, even despite all the shtick.

But with the first drop in temperature yesterday, and it hit me that summer is winding down. Labour day weekend is in a week, and while for me it means little, because work continues as usual, other people are heading back to the classroom or even leaving Montreal. The “lazy hazy crazy days of summer” are drawing to a close . . . and soon enough, winter will be upon us and we’ll be wistfully remembering the nice weather and warm temperatures.

With the March to Jerusalem coming up this Sunday, I’m happy to hear that the weather forecast is predicting sunshine and a high of 22 degrees. Sounds like it will be a perfect summer day.