I’ll remember 2018 as my year of five jobs with the hottest summer I’ve seen. Here’s some of the best summer activities I devoted this frighteningly awesome season to.
- Swimming
- Water skiing
- Sailing
- Kayaking & canoeing
- Mountain hiking
- Geocaching
- Topless cycling to work
- Nocturnal cycling
- Sight-seeing in Malmö and Copenhagen
- Eating syllabub and raspberries off the bush
- Sleeping outdoors
- Dining outdoors
- Listening to outdoor live music
- Riding a steam boat and a steam train
- A gaming con and a scifi con
What were your best summer activities, Dear Reader?
Aardvarchaeology - by Dr. Martin Rundkvist 
Hot? Definitely, and especially at night. The minimum temperature this morning was about 23 degrees C. In September. In a location where, 20 years ago, such a high minimum temperature would have been unheard of in July. I’m told that installing a proper air conditioning system will probably cost about $6k for the two rooms I spend most of my time in, and if I stay here, it will be well worth it. (I have also noticed that first frost has shifted later by about three weeks, which means that much more mowing of grass.)
On the plus side, I got to see the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland (despite several fires in the surrounding forest), and the Oregon coast from Reedsport to Newport. I also turned quite a few locally grown cucumbers into homemade pickles (the last batch is in the refrigerator, to be eaten over the next several days). I even got to sample some locally produced mead.
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I ate about 20 chocolate coated ice creams. And drank two protein drinks every day. It’s not over.
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Was that 20 choc-coated ice creams a day? Not suggesting that’s a bad thing, just great respect bro, if it’s true.
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Hate to disappoint, but no, one per day for 20 days. My body fat % had dropped just too low and was continuing to drop, so I did it to kick-start myself into gaining weight again, and it worked. If you want to increase body fat %, the chocolate coated ice cream is definitely your friend.
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I didn’t know syllabub grew on bushes..
😉
this summer, a couple of canoe trips, mostly.
http://dkretzmann.blogspot.com/2018/08/open-canoe-nationals.html
Really wanted to do some backpacking and mountaineering but ran out of summer.. oy.
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Syllabub grows on syllabushes and travels around town on a syllabus.
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My worry is that it’s developing into a syllabubble.
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That’s the buggeration of it – summer always runs out. But on the other hand, if we didn’t have the chaotic female Yin of winter to offset the orderly male Yang of summer…(insert any completely unintelligible Jordan Peterson quote here).
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Winter down this way. Did a lot of hibernating, spent a couple of weeks on jury service for a kidnapping and assault trial, spent some time out of action with the ‘flu and then found out that a good friend of mine had died from cancer.
I’m really, really looking forward to Spring…
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This summer?
(Heat wave, drought, lasts forever) Fuuuuck!
(moving out of an administrative building to a smaller building, having to clear out fifty years of junk while salvaging some relevant records and equipment and some good furniture) Fuuuck!
(Xenophobia party grows and is all over the internet with bogus news articles) Fuuuck!
(Lunar eclipse…and the clouds block it) Fuuuuuuck!
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Sounds like a good time was had by all.
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Yeah, maybe I just need to start drinking, that works for Homer Simpson and other successful, smart people.
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Highlight was seeing Richard Thompson trio at Gasworth Hall https://www.gawsworthhall.com/ They have the stage to the right of the first picture so you have the house as a backdrop, stunning setting and Thompson was as great as ever.
Walking with the dogs in Lyme Park was pretty good too, esecially on a Dog Day when you are allowed to take dogs into the formal garden. Mr Jazz likes doing this on days off so he can look down into central Manchester, where he works, and enjoy not being there even more.
Best crop of blueberries we’ve had yet, and we did get them (are still getting them) as they were properly netted.
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I heard Richard Thompson in Stockholm a few years ago. Played the guitar to make it sound like three guitars!
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Bloody amazing isn’t he? I’ve seen him solo, and with a band, but even when playing acoustic he produces an incredibly rich sound.
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Yes, he’s better than very good. Technically, he’s right up there with the very best, and musically he’s a lot better than a lot of people who are skilled technically but (in my opinion) lacking musically. There’s more to music that technical virtuosity. Not my preferred genre, but I’m being impartial/objective.
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Interesting. I found a couple of videos of Richard Thompson on Youtube. Not bad, but nothing I’d rave about. Different tastes, I suppose.
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The guy has been around since the late sixties, he has a huge body of work and most youtube videos are obviously going to be of his more recent stuff. He has some songs that relly resonate with me because of when I first heard them, who I was with etc, but I do like his work beyond that kind of association. He can be beautifully vicious at times.
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You forgot “starkers in the garden”.
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“Nocturnal cycling”
Due to the environmentally friendly lack of exhaust, this is known as a nocturnal non-emission.
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*high five*
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