Aug 1, 2013 2 min read

Hard to believe that July should end as it did, with days that seemed more like autumn, with nights chilly enough to pull the blankets tight beneath our chins.

August already, and although still midsummer, vacation for those in school is coming to an end. Not for our state representatives, however. The Pennsylvania House won’t convene until Sept. 23.

Member of the U.S. Congress are fleeing Washington, D.C., today, not to return until Sept. 9. For the next five weeks, they’ll be doing nothing when they are supposed to be doing nothing, rather than being in the nation’s capital and doing nothing when they should be doing something.

With the Capitol abandoned, the television networks must look elsewhere for news. This is the time of year when they resort to celebrity scandals and shark attacks to lead their broadcasts.

If the weather were more typically humid and sultry, if the grass had turned brittle and brown as it often does this time of year, we would be calling these the dog days of August. But the earth is still saturated from heavy rains that have swollen streams and filled reservoirs and caused gardens to explode in jungles of fruit, weed and flower.

These are days to savor, to lie in the hammock and stare at cumulus clouds in their slow tumble across the blue; to listen to the sounds from swimming pools, the splashes, the shrieks, the chatter of flocks of children.

These are the days to drift on the lake, in the shade of the shore even into the late afternoon when the fish aren’t biting, letting a hand slip into the water so dark green and soft and cool.

These are the days to forsake the television set and the computer for the outdoors, to sit on the deck long after supper and watch the night come with its lightning bugs and darting bats and grazing deer.

These are days to enjoy while they last.