100 Days

My children go to school Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. This current school year started in very early September, and on those select days between then and now, they went to school. They were off for holidays, off for a vacation or two, and off when the Fahrenheit failed to reach the negative single digits. This week, they are celebrating the 100th day of this school year. They have parties. They celebrate with some relief, that the worst of the year is over. I imagine the teachers talk about what they’re going to do over summer break, which by now everyone agrees cannot come soon enough. 100 days. It’s a big deal.

In the real world, where you spend most of your time and I spend some of mine, there is another 100 day milestone to be recognized. We are not children, so we cannot have parties and take time off of our jobs to celebrate, but this 100 day mark is as important to us as theirs is to them. Hopefully more so. On this cold February day, a day when more snow is forecast to fall, summer is 100 days away. The countdown to the right of this post proves it, and in case you haven’t been paying attention, the snowflakes that I set to fall on that countdown widget have accurately predicted the precipitation more times than not. This winter has been long, and it has been cold, and it has been snowy, which is mostly what winter is supposed to be. It’s just that today Summer is 100 days away, and that’s a very important thing to be aware of.

I admit to dwelling on the weather more than any rational person should. I think about it constantly, vacillating between acceptance, resignation, enthusiasm, and desperation. Generally, those emotions are all present at once or at least in rapid succession. If I view a 10 day forecast on a Saturday morning, and that forecast shows me nothing but single digit lows and 14 degree highs, I struggle with this. But later, on that same Saturday, I might be out chopping wood and loading that wood into my favorite John Deere, and while I’m doing that I’ll look around at the undeniable beauty of a white winter day and I’ll think things to be rather delightful. Later still, I’ll be inside burning that wood, watching the television, looking outside at the white and thinking that what I need is to see that view turn to green. Then I go to sleep and wake up Sunday only to spend the day alternating between hating and loving, between loathing and appreciating. This has been my cycle, like Groundhog Day, only that I’m happy to not be stuck in Woodstock.

I’ve broken from this rut today, as the 10 day forecast shows signs of a winter thaw. The longer term forecast shows many temperatures in the 40s, even high 40s. There will be melting, and if the weatherman is correct, there may even be thunder in the coming two weeks. This thunder is key, as one veteran of the lake claims nothing breaks up thick winter ice like an early season rumble of thunder. I’ve been looking at this ice every day since late December, and I’m ready to see it go. What we need to accompany these temperatures is rain, maybe a roll of thunder, and some time. For the first time in forever, time is now on our side.

But that’s if you’re like me, and you know what you’re going to be doing this summer. If you knew what your summer was going to look like, you’d be like me, in a hurry for it to begin. I have many things to do in these next 100 days. Thanks to Humminbird and their depth finder that ceased to operate approximately one day after the warranty expired, I have to remove this equipment from my boat and have it repaired. I also have to scrub the bottom of that boat on one of these warmer coming days, and perhaps I should tinker with the engine some to see what the cause of that unholy smoke is that pours from the engine without any hesitation. These are the things I must do, because I know 100 days isn’t a whole lot of time when summer is on the line.

What of those who have no plans for this summer? What of those on the hunt for a summer home, the sort that borders these gentle shores or the kind that sits up the road a ways, close enough to know the lake is near but not so close that the ransom is too high? If a normal real estate closing takes anywhere between 30 and 60 days, then 100 days isn’t much time at all. If 100 days from today is the date we need to be ready for, and if we haven’t even bought the porch that has to be swept in time for those guests that are coming, then we have much work to do and not much time at all to do it in. We can celebrate the 100 day mark, or we can push our noses closer to that grindstone, intent of making this summer different than all the other lame ones that came before.