How did August get here already??

"Here comes summer, Here comes summer,
Chirping robin, budding rose.
Here comes summer, Here comes summer,
Gentle showers, summer clothes.
Here comes summer, Here comes summer
Whoosh — shiver — there it goes."
- Shel Silverstein

So it is now the second day of August. When did that happen? 18 more days until playground clean-up for Ryan's preschool then only 2 weeks after that and the school year begins again.

Where did my summer go? What happened to all those plans I had to go camping as a family, or to make it out to the lake more often? How about taking some little mini vacations up to Park Safari up in Canada or down to the Cape or even over to Maine?? How is it that there never seems to be enough time to do anything but go to work, clean the house and feed the kids? I need a life organizer... either that or a maid, and a cook and a nanny.

Yesterday was 91 degrees and hot. It was just nasty in the house. Today? High of 80 degrees. I love the bipolar personality of a Vermont Summer. August in Vermont means that people start thinking about fall which will be upon us in a couple weeks. The night-time temperatures will begin to drop a little more each night. Labor Day weekend marks the end of the summer season for a lot of the state parks and outdoor places as they begin to pack up for the long winter that will be ahead.

Enough about that dreadful thought, and on to your Ryan and Rachel fix for the day:

This was us getting ready to take Soze for a walk on Monday in the heat. Notice that Rachel is ready for the extreme sun exposure and temperatures. She has a copy of "Big Red Barn" in her hands. Ryan opted to take "SackBoy" with him. It was a short walk. This evening's walk was much more pleasant. I guess we should take the time to really enjoy the evening strolls now before "whoosh.. there they go".

It's really hot...

Every year when the dog days of summer come around we struggle with the idea of whether we want to invest in whole-house air conditioning. This being Vermont and all it's not something that our house was built with. We use an oil-burning furnace to heat water for radiant baseboard heat in the winter, so there is no duct work in our house to even support installing central air conditioning.

Today it reached 91 degrees inside the house during the day. We do have a couple window units that we have accumulated over the couple years we have been here, but they really have done nothing to cool the entire house. We even bought one of those air conditioning units that looks like R2-D2 and is supposed to cool the entire house... no luck.

So at this point we have two options: we can install a split-ductless system (like this one) in the main part of the house, or we can finish out the rest of the basement and live like mole-people in the nice cool underground for the summer. The only reason that I am not running out and getting the air conditioner as we speak is because the actual number of days we need it is so few. One of the things that I have really come to appreciate about living in Vermont is that we have our windows open all summer. There is something about being able to hear nature while you are sleeping, and being able to breathe in the warm summer air. There is enough time to have the windows sealed up all winter, summer is a time to let the house breathe.

So what do you think? Make more living space in the basement or install air conditioning? Let us discuss