July: The Season is Upon Us.

July comes over on the slow boat in a Yukon with four bikes hanging off the back and two stand up paddle boards lashed to the roof. School has finished, two weeks of vacation have been booked, and the house is ready. In the far off past, the summer visitors would come over without their cars. They would stay in inns and guest houses, get a ride to the beach, return for dinner downtown, and find a way to remove all of the sand before going to bed. Then, money flowed and the guest houses became summer houses. Families would come down in their cars, packed to the ceiling, and hunker down in their shacks for the season. Perhaps Dad would come for the weekends. Perhaps he could find a week. But the summer was spent with summer jobs, sailing at the club, hanging out downtown, and letting the hours dawdle. Today, with expensive rents, better houses, and the spiraling cost of ice cream, families come down for a week or a weekend before returning. The hours run.