Using "Summer" as a Verb

One of the most amusing lines that came out of the republican primary contests was when Mike Huckaby said of Mitt Romney something like: “My family never used the word ‘summer’ as a verb…”

Neither did mine. But I’d sure like to. I’d like to use the word “summer” as a verb that tells what Ken and I might do some day.

On many summer visits to the Cape in the past, I thought that it would be nice to be able to spend summers there. Maybe the occasional and entirely optional and short non-summer visit but what I’m thinking here is the full-on June through August, or July through September extended stay. I’d even stay through October but, come November, Cape Cod and the entire state of Massachusetts should be left to her locals. Case in point: April 15-17, 2007.

And it’s gotta be an extended stay because if you do the standard week or two on the Cape you run the probable risk that it will rain every day you’re there. I’ve seen it happen. Not while I was “summering” there, of course, but as a teenager cooped up in a two-week summer rental with my parents. And a two-week visit doesn’t add up to “summering”.

On this most recent visit, I just about resolved that Ken and I shall “summer” on the Cape at some point in our lives. The great weather on this visit had much to do with my resolution. That, and my sister’s beautiful garden. And ALL of the beautiful gardens there! It seems that these people can just dig a few holes and plant a few perennials and annuals and they have flowers everywhere.

When I actually “summer” there, I’ll be too old to run, but I saw plenty of what looked like younger retirees cycling along the rail trail and the canal trail. You can bet I won’t go antiquing when I’m summering, but I’ll cycle and golf and lots of other nice things. Here will be our typical day:

7:00 – Wake up and have coffee and read the paper and have a bite to eat. I’ll bake muffins or a pie or run to Dunkin’ Donuts. Ken can walk the dachshund and the Labrador that we got from a rescue group.
9:00 – Jog or cycle or garden or golf. I might even let Ken talk me into some inland kayaking.
12:00 – Lunch. We’ll have chowda almost every day.
1:00 – Read or nap or write in our blogs or go to a movie
4:00 – Chores!
5:00 – Happy Hour!
6:00 – Dinner
7:00 – Walk the dogs on a beach
8:00 – Hang out. Maybe we’ll have a porch or a nice deck.
9:00 – Lights out