Summer nights (winding down)
by Matt Worley

Okay, so summer is not officially over. Mark McGwire is still pumping out homers on his way to obliterating the long standing baseball record--I'm betting he makes it to 68. The rockets red glare over the Middle East late last week proving we (as a nation) still have a little bit of pride packed in our war arsenal. And there are still a few summer blockbuster movies hanging around the mega-plex, but you can feel the end, can't you?

The nights are getting longer and cooler (well, except for last night--oh the humidity!). The talk around the coffee machine is of fantasy football draft picks and trading rules. Fox is even breaking into summer early and giving us new shows to watch--even as nature continues to bless us with weather only pixelated about on my wimpy 19" TV set.

So here are a few things I'll miss when this summer is over and done. The pleasures that come (mostly) only in the wonderful season we call summer. Come winter (and it could be a hard one), these are the memories that will keep me warm until the sun makes a command return to the stage in April or May. And if you have missed out on some of summer's pleasures, don't fret too much, there are a few weeks left. We'll just call this a preemptive strike.

Baseball: Nothing reminds me of summer more than baseball. Even if my teams suck. The K.C. Royals are fighting desperately to not repeat their last place finishes of the previous two years. The Albuquerque Dukes are hovering above the cellar. I've been to five Dukes games this year. They've lost all of them. Saturday night's game was legitimately lost on the first pitch, which some nasty Iowa Cub smacked into the lava rocks. And even though the Dukes came back for a while (at one point, they were ahead 6-3), the 8-7 loss was inevitable. Just as inevitable as Annie's refrain of, "The sun'll come out tomorrow" playing after every loss.

Crappy Summer Movies: There were a lot of them this year. And even I was fooled for a few seconds into believing Godzilla was gonna be the big one. Well, it was a big something. Leave it to Spielberg and Hanks to steal the show with a gritty, if sometimes cliché, W.W.II movie. Of course, even the horrors shown in that film did nothing to dampen this nation's spirit for actually killing the enemy--as displayed by our tomahawk chop in Afghanistan and Sudan. One ray of sunshine was There's Something About Mary. Or there's something about Cameron Diaz nipping about Miami for 90 minutes as a trail mix of guys pratfall onto every part of their body. Next Summer: a new Star Wars. Am I really that old?

Sunset: It comes between 6 and 9 p.m. With the protracted monsoon season this year (it began with July and has, mostly, stayed around since), we've been privy to amazingly colored clouds and skies this year. Sitting out in the backyard is must see during the summer--let your TV set rest.

Grilling Days: Hamburgers, hot dogs, corn, marinated mushrooms and squash--all of these delicacies have one thing in common. They taste really good after sitting on the grill for 30 minutes or so. The smell of charred flesh, the sizzle of grease striking the coals, the smelly smoke permeating every piece of clothing and skin. Yes, the summer is made for grilling.

Day Trips: The idiocy of getting up and deciding to go somewhere just because I've got one day off from work and there's no way in hell I'm gonna stay inside and stare at another glowing screen for 8 hours. It doesn't matter where, all that matters are good tunes, good scenes and the occasional piss break.

Random acts of insanity: drum circles; 12 pack nights; cut-off shorts; stumbling into the Frontier for breakfast burritos at 3 a.m.; walking, biking, hiking anywhere possible; Slushies from 7-11; the impossibly hot afternoons where everything melts into city soup; root beer floats; halter tops; cruising; good intentions; bad decisions; long visits from friends who actually get vacations from work or school; not cooking; three hours of sleep before work; mid-year resolutions given up when August turns into September; seeing all the college friends more than just once a weekend; the songs of insects hot for each other; cake.

There is so much more. Summer is the best time of year, even though I'm big fan of skiing and snow and all things cold as well. I just don't like protracted cold (which could explain why I live in New Mexico). The summer can be really really really hot, but melting is somehow relaxing. It takes the mind off of the mundane crap that goes on everyday. Like Lewinsky sightings, ten previews before the actual movie starts and bills.

So long summer, I'll catch you with the re-runs.

Matt Worley didn't want to talk about terrorists and bombs (much). At least not yet. Wait for the summer sun to go down ya junkies.

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