The dog days of summer arrive Monday — the days of lethargy, inactivity or indolence, as one lexicographer once put it. And who among us does not want to resemble that remark this time of year?
Who among us does not want to turn on some sweet jazz, low and slow, on a dog day morning and greet the new day? It’s a day that begins so full of promise but, once the heat sets in, becomes a day in which promises can be deferred without penalty.
Who among us would relinquish the sheer joy of conscripting the chaise lounge from the family cats on a dog day afternoon with the refrains of a Pirates’ game on the radio? Only the crack of the bat and the rising Greg Brown call might stir us, “might” being the operative word.
And who among us would retreat from a dog day night, still stifling as the sun sets in a furnace blaze of orange and red, soothed by the salve of rich blues playing at just the right volume on a cheap CD player on the front porch as the ceiling fan, on high and its blades out of balance, airs its grievances in syncopation with the squeaky glider?
Indeed.
The dog days will wane soon enough, around Aug. 11, by the standard of the Old Farmer’s Almanac. Then the pace of life will quicken again.
In, last vacations will be squeezed; formulated, plans for fall will be.
The horns and drums of practicing high school bands will compete with cheerleaders going through their routines, if not a few noisy and out of cycle cicadas.
Harriers will be logging the last of their road work in anticipation of the coming cross-country season; their football counterparts will slowly walk home from their two-a-day workouts.
Gardeners will begin harvesting and canning in earnest, all the while picking a few fall crops to sow.
And our indolence then will be less and less tolerated; our deferring on promises no longer abided.
But, oh, how sweet that the dog days last as long as they do, giving us the perfect license to do nothing at all.
Colin McNickle is a senior fellow and media specialist at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
