The worst season
August 17th
I think I can officially say that the summer is for me the worst season of all. This is unusual since I would always look forward to the summer months for my travels and working in the garden and having time off from work. But those two months — July and August — are too much for me. The pleasant and enjoyable days are few and far in between. The rest of the time it is simply too chaotic and hot and humid and loud for my liking.
Traveling and exploring new places is always nice, but in the summer I need to share every road and street and sidewalk and train and bus and hotel and sight with rushing hordes of other people, who decided to enjoy their summer at the exact same time as I did. And they are just going at full speed, not to waste any of their vacation time and not to miss any pleasure. Vacationing and enjoying summer is hard and exhausting work, it seems. And on top of that, the prices for everything in July and August always include something extra as a summer sucker tourist fee and are completely out of control.
I still do all the possible outdoor activities — gardening, biking, kayaking, or hiking, but it has to be limited to morning or evening hours only. During the day, the weather is too unpleasantly sticky and sweaty to find any pleasure in doing anything remotely physical. And the sun seems to be more powerful than before in burning my skin and frying my mind. And unlike any other season — when it is hot outside, it is even hotter inside — so going home brings no relief. My fan at home running all day barely makes any difference in temperature, getting air-conditioning is extremely expensive, and I have noticed that spending 8 hours a day in the air-conditioning office is not good for my health either — every other day I have a sore throat and can barely speak.
So in addition to putting summer at the bottom of the list of my favorite seasons, I made some decisions. Of course, those decisions will be implemented only the next summer, but it is good to know what I can look forward to. No point for me in exhausting travels in July and August, I will plan my trips for May/June and September/October. I will enjoy my gardening before and after summer — doing only the most needed work (like occasional mowing). And since I plan not to enjoin my future summers the same way as everybody else's, I might as well get more work done in the office.
