I love summer in Minnesota, but have to laugh at some of the ironies about it, too! Here’s a top ten list I started thinking of while stuck in road construction traffic…
You know it’s summer in Minnesota when…
1. You’re driving and 15 miles per hour feels fast.
2. People stop complaining about how cold and snowy it is, and start complaining about how hot and humid it is.
3. You put your beach bag on the floor of your car, right next to the ice scraper that you never bothered to put back in your trunk.
4. The parking lots at Menards & Home Depot are a sea full of trucks (& other vehicles) as people rush to get supplies for all their home improvement projects before it starts snowing again or something. (Even when storms knock the power out it’s still packed as people come to buy generators, flashlights, etc…)
5. Church attendance drops by at least 50% on Sunday mornings because suddenly everyone has a cabin or knows someone who does. Worship leaders on Sunday mornings scramble to find people to usher, greet & help serve coffee since no one wants to commit in advance, in case it’s nice out… (I know this because I work in a church!)
6. You absent-mindedly go to work in long pants & dress shoes because you’ve been doing so for 8 months, but now you regret not wearing capris & sandals because it’s hotter than you expected & your toes are covered in sweat.
7. You go to the library & your kids automatically pick out a bunch of cartoons & movies like they did all winter & spring. Then you return them a week later, unwatched because the kids played outside so much, which is a good thing but makes you feel bad about the movies being borrowed for nothing. Then you all go back to the library and do it all over again.
8. Ice cream & popsicles are now dinner.
9. You’re shopping so much for graduation gifts, wedding gifts, grilling supplies, beach supplies, home improvement materials, road trip supplies, school supplies, & of course, bug spray (those darn little buggers), that you wonder why there isn’t a Black Friday during the summer!!!
10. You get excited about now finally having nice weather & longer days to open all the windows & get all your home organization projects done, but you get maybe 2% done because dang it, IT’S SUMMERTIME and there’s so much fun stuff to do outside! Grad parties! Weddings! Barbecues! The beach! Road trips! Summer is finally HERE!!!!! YAY!!!!!
The should be a list of rules of conduct for lawn mowing in the summer. You’d be surprised to learn, I think, how many people don’t know that you’re supposed to take turns, and not just to keep the up the constant lawn mower drone either.
Good idea!