Tim Rogers: Savoring summer

Good morning. I know we haven’t quite reached August, so the dog days are not officially here yet, but it is hot enough that I think we can all agree that they started a little early this year.

I’m not sure that it has really been all that much hotter here than it usually is, but there is no question that it has been a cooker throughout most of the country. I have lived in the South for most of my life, and on the plains of Kansas for five years, but this is the first year that I have ever heard the term “heat dome” used to describe the weather.

I feel like at any second Mad Max will arrive. No, wait, that was Thunder Dome, wasn’t it?

I think, however, that the term is a good one to describe this summer, because it seems like the pressure cooker analogy is useful for more than just the weather.

People are cranky about what is happening in Washington this summer, cranky about the plethora of LOSTs and SPLOSTs that may be coming their way soon, cranky about the price of gas, and cranky about the Braves, especially Dan Uggla, even though the Braves are having a good season.

Locally, people are even cranky about whether bicyclists and drivers can share the road together.

Thank goodness it looks like the NFL is about to reach a settlement, because if we don’t have pro football come September I am not sure that some people would be able to survive it.

Frankly, it’s enough to make me want to say we all need a time out from cranky.

It can’t be good for us to be cranky all the time and it certainly can’t be good for us to be so cranky when summer is supposed to be the time for relaxing and recharging.

In Dalton and Whitfield County there are just two-and-a-half weeks until the start of school so you don’t have a lot of time to unwind before you have to start winding back up, but you can do it if you try.

I also know that it is hard to relax, recharge and recreate when you are working a 40-plus-hour-a-week job and your wages have been stuck in neutral for several years, but my suggestions don’t take much money or require you to travel very far.

Among the things that I have found this summer to lower my stress, the number one is the 52-cent, 32-ounce fountain sodas at RaceTrac. There is nothing better than a cheap soda with plenty of ice on a hot day, and I don’t even have to produce a dollar bill to purchase it. Even better was the day that the store on Shugart ran out of its 32-ounce cups and started selling 44-ounce drinks for the 32-ounce price. That is enough soda for a child to swim in, but baby it tasted good.

Reading outside on the porch is another sure stress reducer. Summer has a hum all of its own and at night, when it is cool enough to be outside, the combination of a good book and your favorite beverage can lower your blood pressure right off the bottom of the scale. You may wake up on the same page that you started on, but there is no reason for you to hurry through the story.

Playing horseshoes is another activity that is about as low stress as it gets. Yes, it is competitive, so maybe it isn’t good to play it with someone who is genetically wired to go all out all the time, but there is something calming about flinging shoes. Maybe it is the simplicity of the game, or maybe it is the fact that you are actually pitching something from two centuries ago, but a good game can make the hours go gently by.

If you don’t mind the calories, eating is also a good stress-reducing pastime.

This summer my wife bought me an ice cream maker for Father’s Day. Homemade ice cream is messy enough that you need to make it outdoors and it was just enough of a lure that it brought my children outside with it. There aren’t many moments when we are all together talking, sharing stories and just hanging out. At one point, I think I even just looked over at Deb and grinned. Yes, I knew as soon as the ice cream was made and eaten it was likely that Zach would return to blasting zombies or some other video game creature and that the girls would drift off to do something else as well. But for about an hour they were all mine and I felt better for it.

A debt deal, or debacle, is looming.

Sooner than we think cool weather will return.

The rat race wheel just keeps on turning.

It may be hot, but it is still summer — the very best season of the year to stop and do nothing, at least for a few golden moments.

Tim Rogers is editor of The Daily Citizen. He can be reached at 706-272-7735 or timrogers@daltoncitizen.com.

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