Welcome Gratefulness on the Longest Day

 It’s officially summer.

Time for a rewatch?

The season kicks off with the longest day in the northern hemisphere and the shortest in the southern hemisphere. People who live in the far north got to see the midnight sun and in a few places, the sun won’t set for another month or so.

I admit that I’m not the biggest fan of summer. I prefer the start of planting season in mid-spring and the crispness of autumn. Living where I do, the heat is accompanied by extra strength humidity. Plus, I no longer get the summer breaks I did as a kid…because I work full time.

However, there are a few things I’m grateful for during the summer season.

1) Going to the beach - as a kid, I grew up going to the sandy beaches on Lake Superior and the Jersey Shore (DTS? My Jersey friends). Both could have very cold water depending on when in the summer season I went in, but both were a staple of summer fun. I am still able to occasionally go visit - though rarely in the same year.

2) Harvesting from my garden - this is the first year in many that I have more than a balcony garden (I still have one on my deck). Since buying a house with a small yard, I’ve been excited to grow fruits, (mostly) vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Right now my peas are about at their end, so I’ll plant more in late July, but my cherry tomatoes, green beans, and strawberries are just starting to ripen. Hopefully Wilhelmina can keep the birds at bay (not really since she’s an indoor only cat. I sadly did have one tomato plant snap in half, but it’s already regrowing and might have some fruit by August.

3) Festivals - DC and surrounding areas have a ton of outdoor festivals in the summer. While I am (highly) unlikely to do anything for the 250th, I have gone to a few other festivals this year. This weekend, in honor of the solstice, the Smithsonian’s were open until 11:00pm and had a ton of programs available. The Pride festivities were also this weekend. Usually, in late in July, is the Folk Life Festival (always a fun one to attend). Music festivals are also big in DC like Kerfuffle (though that one is in May).

4) Late night walks - I admit that having it stay really bright so late messes with my sense of time, but I do love a late night after dinner walk. There’s usually a cool breeze and fireflies to light the way. The nature trails behind my house are a great place to spot ducks, deer, foxes, and the very rare bobcat and bear.

5) Summer storms - nothing, and I mean nothing, beats a summer storms. My favorite are the ones late in the evening that are mostly electrical. They zap the heat right out of the air and bring a relaxing, if hard, rain. When I used to house sit in rural Virginia, I’d have a storm every night. It was a little spooky, but also comforting (it was very warm in that house). One of my favorite memories is watching my California cousins see a thunderstorm for the first time. Where they lived in CA, thunderstorms were rare. That summer night, we pulled down the beach chairs for them to sit in the garage and watch the lightening dance across the sky.

6) Grilling and BBQ - I hope World Cup attendees are having fun trying American food (and some countries don’t think we have a cuisine) because it’s grilling and BBQ season! I finally have a grill. My aunt gave it to me last year. I’m not very good at using it by myself, but I enjoy setting it up every now and then. I hope our visitors came plenty hungry. We promise plenty of ranch.

7) Camp and Bond Fires - while I do go camping in the spring and autumn as well, summer holds my fondest memories of camping. I was 8 when my parents sent me to overnight camp for the first time (and may not have changed my socks for a week). I had a blast and at the end of each night, we’d gather around the campfire for s’mores and songs. It’s a smell I’ll never get out of my mind. Neither does the memory of all the mosquito bites I ended up with.

8) Pools and Water Parks - sadly my new neighborhood doesn’t have an outdoor pool. I joined a rec center that has an indoor pool, but that isn’t one to relax by. However, there are a few county water parks and pools I can go to. I love lounging in a lazy river or floating in a wave pool.

9) Farmer’s Markets - it is peak farmer’s market season. This week I picked up peaches, strawberries, and corn. The stalls are overflowing with fresh produce. Yes, prices are a little high - which is why I only use cash and go twice a month.

10) Socializing - summer is when most people have outdoor gatherings or plan trips to meet up with friends and family. This summer, I’ll be traveling to visit friends and family in different states. And to kick off this season, I met up with friends to go mini golfing and a backyard BBQ. I’ve also signed up for some outdoor group activities on Meetup and through my library (though there’s a waitlist for those).

So there’s ten things I’m grateful for in the summer time. What are you grateful for this time of year? Do you have plans to hang out with friends? Or maybe you’ll be at a party celebrating the 250th anniversary of the USA or the World Cup. 

Stay safe out there. Wear sunscreen (coral reef safe) and bug spray (triple check for ticks). Always have at least two liters of water on hand. And have fun!

Until the next week. If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y’all like hearing from me.

Welcome to an Engaged Populace

Happy Veterans Day. I hope everyone had the time today to remember what our veterans fought and died for.

If you've been on any social media site in the past few weeks, you've probably been inundated with dozens upon dozens upon millions of tweets, posts, and shares about the US Midterm elections. I've honestly never seen this much interest in an election that didn't include casting a ballot for the president.

It was wonderful.

Politics and the government, whether we want them to or not, influences our lives in ways we don't even think about. Certainly everyone is aware of the laws meant to keep us safe and the stress that comes with paying taxes, but so much of what happens in our lives is determined by government policy. Health codes and regulations: implemented by the government. Equal protection under the law: overseen by the government. The reason you can't use firearms to fish in Wyoming? It's likely that someone in the government was trying to stop someone else from getting killed because of their unique brand of stupid.

Knowing and understanding how the government affects our lives is a lot more important than some people think. I've spoken with some people and they've told me how they're uninterested or feel they are too uninformed for politics.

It saddens me that people don't always take the time to utilize their freedom to vote. Not everyone in the world has this right. There are so many people who lack the power to help decide the direction of their country's future.

Voting is a unique type of power that I am grateful to have.

During the 2008 election year, I was still in high school. It was a presidential election year, so the media was in a frenzy and talked of little else. I couldn't vote, but I was incredibly well informed on what was going on.

One day, right before election day, my math teacher started class a little differently. Like quite a few of my other high school teachers, he had served in the military before going into teaching. He looked at all of us and I remember him telling us (though my friends might have different memories) that the most important thing we could do as citizens of the United States was to use our right to vote.

That year the United States elected their first African American president.

Despite my teacher's lesson, I didn't start using my right to vote until 2012. My university tried to increase engagement in the politics. October through early November always had plenty of pamphlets on the dining hall tables detailing what was going to be on the ballot in our area. Our newspaper would put out a special edition on the candidate. Even one of the professors ran (and won) for mayor of our city.

It wasn't that I was disinterested in politics (I'm from DC - we're surrounded by it from the day we're born). I just had a lot of other things to do that got in my way of going out to the polls. I also didn't realize how important local elections were.

Since 2012, I have made it my mission to vote in as many elections as I can (this includes primaries). I make sure I know where my polling place is, what times it's open, and how easy it is for me to get to. I send out texts to my family to remind them that it's election day.

Still a number of people I would talk to would tell me that they hadn't even realized it was election day. Some would shrug their shoulders and tell me that it didn't really matter all that much.

It wasn't until this year that things felt different.

Usually midterm elections are treated as an interesting blip on people's radar that fades into the background of other, more pressing matters. Presidential elections are the ones everyone really cares about.

Not this year.

This year, everyone was talking about them.

Turn out was huge. People of my generation, who are notorious for not voting in midterm elections, turned out in droves. Absentee and early voting was at it's highest. Lines were long and people arranged to carpool to polls.

I sent out texts to my family as per usual and so many of the responses I got back were: have you voted yet? Even more wonderful, two of those texts came from younger cousins who had to send in absentee ballots because they go out of state schools.

I'm proud of the people in my country. I'm proud that people my age are aware of how important their right to vote is. I'm proud that we're paying attention to what the people lead us are doing.

But with the good, there comes the bad.

Despite the success in getting people out to vote, there were plenty of reports of horror stories. As I stated earlier lines were long. I hadn't had to wait at my polling station for anything since 2012 (I waited over an hour to vote in that election), but I did this year. There were issues with the polling machines malfunctioning. I heard reports of people being told to go to the wrong polling stations.

And the less said about the situation in Georgia the better.

Our system isn't prefect, but we can work together to keep improving. Having a voice in politics and being able to vote is such a wonderful opportunity. It puts the power of our future into our own two hands. We get to have a voice in how our country is run.

I am incredibly grateful for that.

Thank you America for getting out and voting last Tuesday.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.