June 14, 2025

Summer officially begins on Friday, June 20 at 7:42 PM PDT. Kind of odd to have summer start in the evening, right? But astronomers don’t give a hoot about Pacific Daylight Time. All they care about are the facts – as seen from Earth, the Sun will be directly over the 23.5-degree latitude line – The Tropic of Cancer – and at 7:42 PM PDT, the Sun will never venture any more northward, and we begin our six-month march towards summer in the southern hemisphere.  

That’s why our days are so long now. I know when the tiniest shard of daylight starts seeping through our bedroom windows. How do I know? Because our Scottish Terriers, Duffy and Maggie Mae, sense the impending sunrise, and start scratching, sneezing, shaking, and whining just before that first light eeks in. I think they can smell it. Their whimperings are ever so soft at first, but it’s eventually more than enough for my light sleeping self to know that it’s time for me to get out of bed. These days, that light seems to come in before the clock hits 5 AM. Ouch. As much as I love our dogs . . . 

Of course, my alarm used to be set for 4:30 AM every day, and I was out the door on the way to a very uncivilized 5:30 swim workout. That was just two years ago. How quickly our bodies adjust.  Now, my workout starts at 12 noon. It’s sunny and quite lovely. Jill commented the other day that I was getting pretty tan, and I told her it was the noon swimming. She asked if I was wearing sunscreen, and I broke it to her that there was no need, as I was swimming face down in the pool most of the time. That’s when she broke it to me that there’s an incredible amount of UV-ray reflection coming off the bottom of the pool. Who knew! But just to confirm, I did ask C-Bot, my ChatGPT assistant, who said, “Yes, absolutely wear sunscreen while swimming laps at noon in an outdoor pool. Here’s why: ☀️ UV Rays Don’t Care That You’re Wet.” The Sun emoji was a nice touch. But the bold print made it seem like C-Bot was yelling at me. So now I wear sunscreen, but I’m still pretty tan.

Summer is the best. 

Jill finished her 35^th year of teaching on Thursday, and she is looking forward to nine luxurious weeks of enjoying summer. But just so you all know, about seven weeks into summer, she will start getting excited about her 36^th year of teaching, and she will start working to be completely ready when her students return. Pretty cool to love your job that much.

We have no big trips planned for this summer. We have two short trips scheduled, one to Utah (Zion National Park) and Las Vegas, and a camping trip with family and friends to beautiful Reedley, California. The rest of the time we will be at home, and that’s just fine with me! 

Here are some summer activities I am looking forward to:

• As much outdoor cooking and dining as possible. My favorite things to make outside with my gas grill, my charcoal-fired Big Green Egg, and my still relatively new propane-fueled Blackstone Griddle include pulled pork, brisket, smash burgers, fried rice, smoked chicken, hot links, black bean burgers, Asian noodles, blackened salmon, and anything else we can think of.
• As much pickleball and golf as possible. I’d love to do both twice a week.
• The sounds of our neighborhood. Jill has said that during the summer, our neighborhood sounds like a campground. Our houses are pretty close together. We can hear the sounds of children playing and music piping sounds of summer into nearby backyards, lawns being mowed, kids playing in the street – it is all a stupendous summer symphony.
• The Pacific Ocean gets a little warmer, and once it hits 65 degrees, I’ll actually get in and play. It’s been as high as 64 already, but this week it’s hovering around 62. I grew up swimming in warm, and in the late summer – too warm, Arkansas lakes, and I’ve never gotten used to being cold in the ocean. I’m OK with that, but I do get mocked by a few friends. Maybe by mid-July.
• Listening to music, and maybe even playing a little music. 

And on that note, here are some song lyrics that embody the feelings of summer – I hope you enjoy.

• “It’s a smile, it’s a kiss, it’s a sip of wine…it’s summertime!” – Kenny Chesney
• “Summertime, and the living is easy.” – Ella Fitzgerald
• “Those summer nights” – John Travolta and Olivia Newton John
• “I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand, Not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand, Life is good today.” – Zac Brown Band
• “We’re waxing down our surfboards, We can’t wait for June.” – Beach Boys
• “Oh when I look back now, That summer seemed to last forever. And if I had my choice, Yeah, I’d always wanna be there. Those were the best days of my life.” – Bryan Adams
• “Workin’ on our night moves, Trying’ to make some front-page drive-in news. Practicing our night moves, in the summertime, In the sweet summertime summertime” – Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band
• “Summer breeze makes me feel fine.” – Seals & Crofts
• “When I think about those summer nights; Singing out the window, on the back roads, Sweet Child of Mine; Sipping on the local’s spark of light; Ain’t it funny how the best days of my life, Was all that wasted time, All that wasted time.” – Keith Urban

Let’s all have a fantastic summer!

Post #134 on www.drmdmatthews.com

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NOTES

I add these notes sections for a number of reasons:

• Remember, the posts are long enough – no one is making you read the notes. (Dad – If you are going to critique me for how long my posts are, please stop reading now. This is the optional part!)
• First and foremost, many of you are crazy enough to read them.
• Ideas that don’t make the cut can end up in the notes section.
• I include additional resources, links, stories, for those of you who want to go a little deeper.
  I may include something from the comments made in my last post, or something I learned in the process of writing this one.

One of my favorite recent songs is Eric Church’s Springsteen, where he recalls high school memories that come up whenever he hears certain Bruce Springsteen songs. As I write this, I think I’ve shared this song in a previous post. The best line of all is, “Sometimes a melody, sounds like a memory, like soundtrack on a July, Saturday night . . . Springsteen. If you haven’t heard it, here’s the video. And how many melodies do you know that sound like a memory? I have so many.

Any summer songs or melodies you would add to my list?

I like the late sunsets, but I would gladly trade a little of that pre-5-AM-light for longer evenings. I guess life doesn’t work that way.

And just to push back on the astronomers out there, summer really starts the day school gets out. It’s an awesome time to be a student (and a teacher).

One of the greatest things about being a teacher or a student is that when a school year ends, you get a true chance to make the next year a little better or a lot better. You start with a clean slate, a new group of students, and you get to the opportunity to do a little bit better than last year. I love that. I got to be part of that for four decades, and I feel very fortunate. Not everyone gets to experience that annual fresh start opportunity for so many years.

Finally, Happy Father’s Day to all of the dads out there. To my Dad, to my Father-in-Law, to my nephew Michael (and his wife Emily) who just became a father with twins yesterday, and to all of the spectacular dads I know. Back to my nephews . . . Twins. How wonderful and how terrifying! Here’s my Father’s Day post from last year if you are interested.