Summertime

I saw something rather odd over the weekend. Some birds decided that my deck, which is barely large enough for a folding chair, would be the perfect place to build a nest. Even if said nest would need to be perched on a two by four that isn’t really protected from the elements. Hence the fact that I had to spend some time this evening sweeping up branches from several failed attempts at a nest. I’ve seen these birds try this on numerous occasions and you have to admit, they are persistent little buggers. Maybe not the wisest creatures on the planet but definitely persistent.

And yeah, I can relate to creatures that continue to persevere in the midst of continual failure. I’ve been there, done that, won the t-shirt, wrote the wiki entry…

I’ll also admit to owning the ugliest deck furniture in the history of the planet. See, my deck is pretty much exposed to the sun and the wind and the rain and the decks above me have rather large openings in the planks and I have an awful habit of never remembering to put the chair away when I’m not using it. Hence, the furniture is the worse for wear in perpetuity. It’s on the list of things to fix but admittedly, it’s a pretty long list.

On a completely different topic, tomorrow is another on the list of Battling the Current official holidays. Now, we already have celebrations for National High Five Day and National Talk Like a Pirate Day, which might constitute the two high holy days for this website. But tomorrow is the summer solstice and it must be observed not for some odd pagan ritual but rather because of the great Daisy Buchanan quote in my blog’s namesake. “Every year we look forward to the longest day of the year but we do nothing to celebrate it.”

(Or something like that, my copy of Gatsby is out of reach at the moment and the only other quote that I can recite verbatim is “Her voice is full of money.”)

Anyway, since on tomorrow we will have the most light of any day of the year I call upon my readers to at least do something to relish in the fact that we get to bask in the sunlight for at least a split second longer than any other day. Because we will miss the sun in December when you go to work in the dark and leave work in the dark and when you’re like me and can’t see a window from your cube, basically live your entire life in the dark. So go outside tomorrow and watch the sunset (or for those of you poor bastards who get up early, the sunrise.) Light a candle and curse the darkness. But do something to remember that for just one day, there is more daytime than we know what to do with.