I’d just like to say that I’m tired of the whole "hey, and it’s not even summer yet!" mentality. Firstly, saying that June 21 is the start of summer is just as logical as December 21 being the start of winter after you’ve already been wearing your coat for several months (and in Cleveland perhaps already ruined a few pairs of pants and boots from the salt.) Secondly, MEH it’s really hot outside. It’s been hot all week.
(I just did a Google image search for "hot". Thank goodness for safe search! And then I tried the more descriptive "hot weather" and found the sort of thing I was looking for.)
I heard on the radio the other day than in China the government defines the start of summer as the day after 3 consecutive days that exceed a certain temperature. That makes so much more sense than an arbitrary date! Now, I can’t find any corroborating evidence of this right now, but I remember hearing it. If it wasn’t China, maybe it was Singapore. I am failing at the internet this morning.
In any case, let me quote the current Wikipedia article on summer, which sounds like it was written by somebody as annoyed as I am by our seasonal definitions:
"From the astronomical perspective, days continue to lengthen from equinox to solstice and summer days progressively shorten after the solstice, so meteorological summer encompasses the build-up to the longest day and a diminishing thereafter, with summer having many more hours of daylight than spring. Solstices and equinoxes are taken to mark the mid-points, not the beginnings, of the seasons. Midsummer takes place over the shortest night of the year, which is the summer solstice.
The Western definition based on equinox to solstice is more frequently used where a temperature lag of up to half a season is common.[3] Summer is the period from the summer solstice to the autumn equinox.[4][5][6][7] Unofficially, the U.S. summer season is commonly regarded as beginning on Memorial Day weekend in May and ending on Labor Day weekend in September."
So there you have it. June 21 is the MIDDLE of summer, not the beginning. Yes, it’s Saturday, I’m using wikipedia as a definitive source. It’s okay, my parents are RETIRED college teachers 🙂
(that’s the forecast.)
random tangents:
Last night I went to see a friend’s husband’s band at the Focal Point in Maplewood, and then we met some folks at Urban Chestnut. It was a great summer night! Today I have a wedding and need to do preparations for tomorrow afternoon’s studio recital.
And last night I had my SECOND getting married dream. This one included a walk down the aisle in my dress. It also involved me being really controlling with the ceremony musicians, i.e., at one point I was playing violin with them to demonstrate the correct tempo for Panis Angelicus. And it definitely included the song I am 98 percent sure I want to walk down the aisle to (wow that is tricky grammatically, is that even remotely correct?). I may cry to the song, but I think that’s okay…
Somehow my cat would try to ruin everything! Like she ruins my sleep every night. Silly fat thing.
Awww…who can stay mad at that??