Why Summer Is My Least-Favorite Season

Yep, dead last, even after winter. I like autumn best, spring second (my main problem with spring is hayfever in April and May), winter third, and summer last. Here's why summer is last:

• I loath it when it stays light until 9:00 p.m. My kids stay up way later, and it just feels like I'm being shortchanged some good settling down time.
• With the kids home all day, the house and yard seem to always be a wreck, even with my sweet wife trying to keep up with it. We have four kids at home all the time now, and some of them are quite hyperly messy. It seems like the kitchen floor is sticky all summer long with popsicle and watermelon juice.
• I hate yardwork. I'd much rather shovel 5-6 times a winter than mow the lawn every week, and we just don't keep up with the flowerbeds. And it always bugs me quite a bit when we get bare or dead patches in our lawn, and ours seems to be getting worse every year.
• I hate getting into a hot car. I don't like getting into cold cars either, but hot cars are a little worse. It takes longer for the car to cool off than warm up.
• I don't like being outdoors, and in summertime I feel more obligated to be outside with the kids, pushing them on the swing or whatever. I like the idea of camping, but it always takes so much work before, during, and after, and it is always very uncomfortable. Lately I've been having some strange feelings that maybe it would be fun to start barbecuing or boating, but they both have so much of a learning curve that I doubt I'll get around to either one. (Right now I'm editing Powerboating for Dummies for Wiley, and that's made me think about boating... I feel like I do too much editing and writing and need a change-of pace activity or hobby.)

What I do like about summer is that everyone's asleep in the morning at my house, so I have some peaceful time while I'm getting ready for work, although I miss my wife making me boiled eggs on Tuesday and Thursday mornings (on the other days I take cottage cheese with fruit; for some reason, just in the past year I've been starting to eat breakfast after most of my lifetime without it, I think because my bosses started making me get up a little earlier so I could be to work by 8:00).

Also, I dislike wearing socks and shoes and love wearing sandals in summertime, although my boss always gives me so much crap when I wear dress sandals to work that I don't anymore unless he's out of town. And something fantastic this summer is that I did not get assigned a class at UVSC, so I'm very much enjoying the time off from teaching. I think I will now always take summers off, unless we're hurting financially. Not that I had a choice this summer--UVSC said they had only enough classes for the very best teachers, not for middle-of-the-road performers like me. In fact, with this new writing committee in place, I'm worried I won't get a fall class either, which would really put a hole in our household budget.

My favorite month has always been October. I love the fall weather, and I love my kids getting back into the school routine. As a kid, I loved October because I enjoyed it when school got into full swing and because it was my birthday month and also Halloween, but as an adult I no longer like either of those occasions. I like the idea of Halloween but have no interest in putting any effort into any aspect of it. My birthday is just a pain in the butt all around, especially now that I'm dreading every year I get deeper into my forties.