The Seasons

In the summer I do my sad little version of "gardening," that is, tending flowers in containers on my second-story porch. Still, I do enjoy making things grow, and there's the reward of having the pretty flowers, too.

And there's walking (I like to take little hikes in a nearby wildlife refuge, although I don't do as much of this as I used to, due to joint pain), reading out on my porch, and cooking and eating out there, too. (Makes me wonder how I pass my time in the winter. Now don't start envisioning someone sitting by the fire knitting—I may have a fire, but I don't knit.) Also, here in Chicago—unlike some places where you could do all the year 'round those things that we do in summer--we appreciate our nice weather all the more once it comes.

Certainly we make adjustments to our lives according to the seasons. There are lots of "outdoor activities" that are associated with summer. There are outdoor winter activities, too--skiing, snowmobiling, ice skating--but I never was into any of those. There was a time, many years ago—either when I was trying to write a PhD thesis or a period of unemployment—when I spent a time outdoors pretty much daily, all through the winter: hiking around with my camera, clambering up on the ice dunes that form on the beach, taking pictures. It seems as though you can develop a certain adaptation or tolerance to the cold weather, and I have never again, since that winter, had that kind of acclimatization. Nowadays I don't have to experience winter's cold very much simply because I don't do the walking, don't spend much time outdoors, don't go anywhere except in my car. (Once in a while I shovel a little snow, but that's mostly performed for me.) Not that that's entirely a good thing, but it does lessen the degree to which I want to leave our cold climate behind.

Also, I am perhaps not quite yet in that age regime, but there comes an age when your balance is not as good so that there's the danger of slipping and falling on ice. Old folks who fall might sustain fractures. Not a cheery thought, but the point is that if I don't do all the wintertime tramping around outdoors that I once did, I'm not as much at risk for that sort of thing.

Anyway, it's summer. Time to put all that out of mind and enjoy all the advantages of this time of year.
Copyright © 2009 by Richard Stein