Sumer Is Icumen In

Here in Montgomery County, MD, we're finally seeing the end of spring and the beginning of summer. And as I do each year about this time, I find myself returning to the same three thoughts:

• Why, when we're a full week past Memorial Day, are the schools still open?
• When are those of us who have to schlep to the office going to be able to enjoy the easy summer commute?
• How soon will fall and winter get here?

The first question is the real conundrum. My problem is this: our kids, being homeschooled, have completed their studies for the year. Well, at least my son has. My daughter still has to finish her speech about recycling. By the time it's done, I'm afraid the paper that she's writing it on will have biodegraded to nothing, rendering the speech moot. But setting that aside, my kids were done with school more than two weeks before the ones I see waiting for the bus when I leave my house at 6:30.
This year, school ends on June 16th. I'll say that again, with feeling: this year, school ends two full weeks after Memorial Day. I ask you, how many kids will actually be there on the last Monday and Tuesday?
Why is it that school has to last so long? When I was a kid, we were out of there by a couple of days after Memorial Day, if I remember correctly. I've asked people why school ends so late in the spring. Of course, right-thinking folks--most of them--say "YEAH, WHAT THE HECK ARE THEY THINKING DOWN AT THE SCHOOL BOARD?!?". The universal response from those who agree with this lunacy is that the school year has some extra days so that they don't run out of time to complete the educational process if there are a lot of snow days during the winter.
Fine. I guess I can accept that, especially here, where they have occasionally closed the schools because one nutjob TV "meteorologist" whispered in a cue-card guy's ear during a commercial break that the highly experimental weather modeling software that his six-year-old son programmed himself on his GameCube predicted a half-inch of snow tonight in one out of 67,000,000 trials.
A couple of years ago, I'm pretty sure that they actually extended school a couple of days because of a glut of snow closures, some of which were quite unnecessary. It seems, however, to be a one-way game. If they need to extend school, they do it with great gusto. But do they shorten school if there's still a balance in the snow-day bank when May rolls around? Of course not.

Great. Now I'm all angry. I guess I'd better move along.

On to the second question. I've lived in three cities where I had to deal with rush-hour traffic on a daily basis. Here in the Washington, DC area, there is an enormous difference in the traffic load during the summer and the other seasons. I don't remember it being that way in Denver or Salt Lake City. My 28-mile commute takes 40-45 minutes in the fall, winter and spring, barring bad weather or the rumor thereof--see the discussion of question one above--and about 30-35 minutes in the summer.
Needless to say, I can't wait for the summer commute. It seems already to be loosening up pretty well, but I'll be really glad when it's fully developed.

And now, the third and most controversial question in our house. I will freely admit to being one of those odd sorts who prefers winter. I used to live in Phoenix, where there are two seasons: real, real hot and December. I thought that I was missing the change of seasons when I lived there, and I still think that's true to a point. But the fact is that I get more excited with the onset of autumn than I do when the thaw begins.
Mrs. Dad Run Amok doesn't see it that way. She thinks that Arizona sounds just dandy. I can respect that, if for no other reason than the fact that I could play golf year-round if we lived down there. Actually, I don't get to play much as it is, but if we were in Arizona, I could be not playing golf year-round.

Finally, if you get the reference in the title of this post, mad props to you. For the rest of you, there's always Google