Summer

The outside temperature got up to about 90°F today. Regardless of what the calendar says, when I have to run the a/c – that’s the beginning of my summer. Today, I ran the a/c for the first time this year. I really prefer to have a window open over running the a/c, but when the inside temperature hits 80° I’m ready to make the switch.

My neighbor Sally called me around noon. She was in an auto accident this morning. She said her car was jolted like it was struck from behind, and then the car started spinning. She said she spun completely around at least three times, striking the median divider on each spin. In morning rush-hour traffic, no one hit her car while it was spinning out of control. A witness to the accident said an 18-wheeler hit her. A trooper came along and gave her a ticket for reckless driving and failing to keep the car under control. The cop wanted her to get into an ambulance and go to a hospital for a checkout. But Sally works in a hospital and that was the last place she wanted to be. So she didn’t go.

A friend who lives up the street got double-pneumonia in February and had to go to the E.R., barely able to breathe. They admitted him and he spent 10 days in the hospital. After he got back home, the medical bills starting arriving. The hospital bill was $89,000 – a problem because he doesn’t have health insurance. He said the doctor bills are still arriving. I know what he’s talking about. A few years ago I was in the hospital without health insurance and the medical bills arrived at my mailbox for weeks, for months. My friend casually mentioned that he’ll probably have to declare bankruptcy. Medical bills are the number one cause of personal bankruptcy.

Not that those last two items have anything to do with summer. But then, it’s not really summer in the northern hemisphere until the summer solstice occurs, and that will happen this year on June 21 at 1:04 A.M. (EDT). Maybe then I’ll write some summer tales.