Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Summer Solstice?

Did you know that the “Dog Days of Summer” actually refers to Astronomy and the Dog Star which is Sirius the brightest star in the sky “and it does rise and set with the Sun at some times during the year - when it does this it is said to be in conjunction with the Sun. The Dog Star came from the ancient Egyptians who called Sirius after their god Osirius whose head and pictogram resembles a dog.” Thanks to Cornell University Astronomy Department at: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=178
In Egypt as well as ancient Rome the Sun and the Dog Star were up in the sky the same time as summer thus the expression the ‘dog days of summer’!

Can anyone else but me remember when this date was the one we all waited for to start having real fun? It meant summer vacation was very soon. Up in New Jersey we did go to school well into the month of June towards the end; if I recall. And always went back the day after Labor Day, everyone always had 180 days of school no matter where you lived in these United States and I do believe that has not changed.
But our sons were ten and fourteen when we moved to Florida and except for that very first year here they would start in August and get out in early June or even I think one year in May and all these schools are air-conditioned but none up north were; if I recall.

Nasty hot days would start in May even in good ole New Jersey.
Here too most recently but previously years we did not have it this bad and this year oddly enough we started this heat-wave in March, would you believe? I can even remember times when we first moved to Florida having cooler temperatures than New Jersey in the summer; we had eighties and they would have nineties, how odd?
But since March here it has been in the nineties and very dry, causing many forest fires and so even though officially today is the first day of summer I feel like saying…. You have got to be kidding!
Those ancients seem to dictate all of our seasons and holidays too.
I think perhaps we should rethink their decisions for us, what do you all say?
Why don’t we rename the seasons by what they really are? Since we have strange seasons like tornado, hurricane, fire/ drought, mudslide/ flood and snow/hail, or freeze your butt off or some such thing! That would break it up nicely, huh? Wait a minute nah, no can do, winter, summer, fall and spring we all must admit sound much nicer, but the truth is they don’t tell it as it really is; do they? Power of the word or title makes for more positivity, hmmm.
All right another of my logical ideas shot to heck… let’s sweep our realities under the rug…
Living it all is bad enough.

Did I wish you all a happy summer yet?
Please feel free to enjoy it whatever way you feel the need to; after all the idea is free to all… but may I beseech you to pray for cooler weather and then I too will jump on your bandwagon, how about that?

You are getting a bit of break from me tonight with this shorty of a composition, sticking with my school theme. How nice to have a shorty on the longest day of the year, hmm?
Yes, you know that is true sunrise was at 6:34A.M. EST and sunset will be at 8:25 P.M. EST, that’s over fourteen hours of sunshine!
Actually, sunshine is so beneficial to good moods and health and so let’s all welcome the season of summer with a big cheer!
“Hot, Hot, Hot, Not, Not, Not!
What else have you got, got, got?”

On that trying to lighten all of our loads with a bit of flakey oddity from my soul, let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count your blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, OK?

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