Summer Fun Toy

This week's Saturday Slant

Summer’s coming. If you had to pick just one summer fun toy, what would it be? Would you cruise around the South West in an RV? Does the convenient refreshment of a backyard pool entice you? Looking to steam up the summer nights in your very own hot tub? Up for wave-skimming excitement with a jet ski? Or are you more of a home-body, opting for an ice-cold air conditioner to keep movie nights comfortable? What is your summer fun activity toy?

What is "Summer"? We live in the air-conditioning duct of the SF Bay Area - the fog and wind come from the ocean, over the ridge, past our house, heading to the Bay. We have 4 seasons: Autumn, Wet, Spring, and Sere. We get perhaps 4 or 5 really warm (meaning, there's no wind to compensate) days a year, not necessarily juxtaposed.

The best thing we've bought to take advantage of Spring and Summer is new windows; the old windows were sticky alumnum casement windows, many of which we couldn't open (because then they didn't close properly). Now we can open the windows at the front of the house. We get a breeze and the cats love it. We also have ceiling fans in many rooms.

Our barbeque grill (a great portable one, the Thermos 225sq in tabletop model) lives in our fireplace. Except for those 4 or 5 days a year we have sufficient draw to safely cook there year-round. This is good, because we don't have a back porch or patio; we've enclosed those to make them more useable when it's cold, windy, or foggy (i.e. year round).

CAUTION: if you don't have a constant 10mph or better breeze over your chimney
DO NOT try fireplace grilling at home! We have a hot tub. Hubby was raised in Southern California — a hot tub isn't a toy; it's a necessity. I agree; there is nothing better to get the kinks out of back and neck or to relax a person before bed. We use the hot tub year round; it's even nicer in the Wet season. A 108 degree F tub does a great job on a 40 degree F night with a 20 mph stiff breeze. We continue to make minor fixes to our tub. We can't upgrade to a new one (current guvmint regulations put a max temperature of 104 on hot tub regulators. To Spouse and Self that's unacceptable (to me, that's too cold; it's amazing how much heat dissipates under that 20mph breeze!)

That's about it. We don't bike, swim, boat, or camp. No RV. We go for walks; if it's not raining, our "Summer" and "Winter" aren't very different.

Summer Fun Toy ( in category Memes & Prompts ) - posted at Sat, 10 Apr, 10:19 Pacific | «e»