It's HOT outside, kids! The forecast says we're to have temperatures well into the 90s today, and it's to stay that way for at least a week.
Since this is Chicago, I don't happen to think this is a bad thing. It's something to hold on to when we're shoveling snow in a few months.

For the second time this year, I've got the sprinkler running on our tiny patch of lawn. We've had enough rain that it hasn't been an issue so far.

However....The Boy hates the heat. It's a large part of the reason we left Dallas. He whines, he complains, he wears ghastly headgear and generally acts as if the weather gods are trying to make him suffer. (We all know the weather gods are trying to make ME suffer in February, right?)

So, here's the poll:

1. What was your favorite thing to do on hot summer days when you were a kid?

2. How about now? Are you a big sissy like The Boy, whose idea of summer activity is to go to the movies, or do you revel in the heat and make any excuse you can to go outside?

1. What was your favorite thing to do on hot summer days when you were a kid?

Go swimming or take off on the dirt bike, we were never inside during the summer.

2. How about now? Are you a big sissy like The Boy, whose idea of summer activity is to go to the movies, or do you revel in the heat and make any excuse you can to go outside?

Go swimming, gardening or take off on the bike in the early mornings. I'm still a kid during the summer, I'm always outside.

You 90's would be a welcome relief. We are in the high 100-110's.

"We are in the high 100-110s."

I knew you were going to say that! That's a large part of the reason we left Texas - I know those temps can stick around for a month or more. The first year we lived there, we had record hot weather. Starting in June and continuing toward the end of September there was not one day with a temperature of less than 95 degrees. For over 30 days straight, it was over 100.

I use to love to clean out the garage on a hot summer day. Moving bikes, sweeping up dirt, trying to find a place for the extra shovels...

Actually my favorite was jumping in the pool, then sprawling on the deck to increase my melanoma risk. Ah, those were the days.

My current "beat the heat" activities still include getting wet by swimming or kayaking, taking the boat out on the lake, mountain biking (it's mostly in the shady woods) and drinking mint juleps.

Next week I'm heading up to the mountains, where it is at least somewhat cooler, and the river is cold. Mmmm, can't wait.

But now I have to wonder: what kind of ghastly headgear? One of those old man floppy canvas sun hats? Or a double beer can sippy helmet?

He has one of those hideous Tilley hats that are supposed to last for eternity (dammit!) and a couple of baseball hats that are kinda scary. He doesn't wear anything with a team or logo on it, which is a good thing, but one of his baseball hats shrank in the wash, so it looks quite goofy. Another used to be black, but is now faded to a sort of greige color with a lot of fraying happening. I don't mind the black one as much, truthfully.

One thing he used to wear that needs replacing is a pith helmet of the woven straw variety. I know it sounds odd, but it actually looks good on him. I think I know where I can get one of those...

I can't really say I had any "favorite" activities. We were linited to a 5 block radius when our mother wasn't home, which was all houses & businesses. Well, there were a couple of creeks we liked to hang out in, which always made Mom furious, since our shoes would stink, and we'd get some weird, painless, blistering fungus on our feet. At least we didn't eat the chinaberries, like most of our friends did.

I do recall that it had to get to at least 99° F before we'd stop in at the 5 & dime to buy flip flops (called "thongs" back then) because the asphalt was beginning to stick to the soles of our feet. We usually only wore tennis shoes in the creeks, because of the broken beer bottles, discarded barb wire, and the like.

1. As a lad - during the refractory periods (between being fruitful, and multiplying), I used to play a LOT of tennis - the hometown had a bevy of courts and an active scene.

2. Nowadays - I live in Dallas, midway between the Dallas Theological Seminary and the First Baptist Church of Dallas, in a heavily catacombed area known as "Deep Ellum". Don't see much sunlight (I would burst into flames, I'm sure) but I do spend much time in the cool depths maintaining the beer vats, whiskey barrels, and vampiric harlots, and studying what the Bibo Sez.

Bless you!

AugustAlley:

I live in Dallas, midway between the Dallas Theological Seminary and the First Baptist Church of Dallas, in a heavily catacombed area known as "Deep Ellum".

I know the area well, and understand you so much better now.

1. We always went out to our lake house and paddled around in the water. And if a motorboat happened to go by while we were out of the water, we'd all sprint for the dock and jump back in, yelling "boat waves!" Because boat waves are awesome.

2. Heat = the worst. Two big thumbs down from me. I suppose it's telling that we just moved from NC back up to New England. On a July day in NC, chances are, the only time I'd spend outside would be between my air-conditioned home/work and my air-conditioned car, and I'd spend the entire time praying for death. Now, in New England in Feb, that's when you scrape off the car and head off to go skiing :)

1. got on my bike and rode to the pool and swam all day. ALT: the creek.

2. Two words: Frozen Anything.

Oh and: prowl the city, take a week off for snorkeling purposes. Eat fresh local veggies from the Green Market. At least one trip to Sandy Hook.

...of plenty, although not the greatest, bestest nation ever known to man, past. present and future, I did belong to the swim club, which had it's winter's quarters in a Roman bath with Travertine columns built in 1911, for the working class neighborhood, and a 25meter pool. <link>

But, you asked about the summer, and during that season the outdoor 50meter pool was open. My favorite activity was to swim my laps, 100 or so, breaststroke, with arms only, then legs only, then combined in the unheated pool. In June the water was so damn cold, certain parts of my anatomy froze into rocks. It was an utmost delight to get out of the cold pool after a workout and lie on the cement pavers warmed by the sun. Like hot rocks at the spa, the cement warmed all the cockles of my hear and bone. Then after an hour or so of that, I would walk barefoot in swimshorts to the play area, where lots of my friends where either playing socker in the huge sandbox barefoot, or volleyball, or I'd chase a girl or two.

Then my mother, a woman, said, this place has no future, we're going to America. Then I spent hot summers in New Haven Connecticut sweating like a pig walking downtown to the bus to go to Lighthouse Park and swim with inner city kids in Long Island Sound.

Today, my most favorite thing to do in summer, besides ride my bycicle from my house to the beach and fishing pier, is body surf on a short surfboard at Miqaumicut beach. Oh wait, the other favority thing is the tiki bar at the Windjammer, right on the beach. Oh wait, the pool tables in the toally empty, but clean and hardwood floored pavillion is a great place to get away from the glare of the sun.

1. Defrost the freezer (no auto-defrost back then)- make a pile of snowballs and have a neighborhood snowball fight.

2. Veg- do absolutely nothing but enjoy the heat.

Good one, Messy!

Favorite as a kid? Beach. 7 days a week, all summer, Newport, Laguna, or Huntington beach, surfing all day if I could (my folks wouldn't buy me a board - I had to borrow).

Favorite as an adult? Beach! But alas, it's 3 1/2 hours away. Spent this past weekend in Myrtle Beach and rolled in the stubby, pathetic Atlantic waves with my kids for hours, until the sunblock gave up and I burned in lovely tiger stripes. Then I just put on more sunblock.

Meanwhile - I do NOT revel in the heat. Anything from 90 degrees and below isn't really heat, though - "heat" starts at 91 and becomes unbearable at about 100 or so, unless I am in Vegas, in which case I will tolerate 135 degrees while I trot from hotel lobby to hotel lobby.

Rather, I like to get wet and cool off in the heat. I have a very ugly hat myself, but most Californians my age have a wicker hat somewhere - it was a fashion thing way back. Typically I use it to mow the lawn.

Good thing about having young kids - a Slip-N-Slide is better than Disneyworld to them, and I get to pick them up and flang them down the chute (and get soaked myself) all day. Bring on the heat, I'll beat it!

OK, so last time the family was at Disney World, everyone got a hat. The older boy got an outback-style canvas job, the little one a mouse-ears pirate-bandana combo, and my wife found a princess tiara that suits her well.

I had to get one too, of course, and I picked the Animal Kingdom pith helmet. The Disney logo is very discreet, and since I had to drop 30 bucks, I figure I'm gonna wear that sucker out. It is now my default lawn & garden work hat, and works surprisingly well. I used to bonk my head on low tree branches while mowing - not anymore. Also it's shady and well ventilated.

Finally, it serves to keep away any distracting, unwanted, and inappropriate female attention. Or any female attention, for that matter.

Nice bathhouse. Last time we were in Munich my wife went to one there, while I took the lads to the Deutsches Museum. It was nekkid wimmin only day, but she didn't know that that rule expired at 4:00 pm, when the nekkid dudes started to arrive. She beat a hasty retreat to avoid laughing out loud.