Complex Numbers

Summer Ale

My favorite summer activity is the same as my favorite fall, winter, and spring activity.

PROMPT July 13th

Write about your favorite summer activity.

The only difference is a) where it happens (indoors or outdoors) and b) what kind of beer.

When I was a kid, in the summers I'd relax after a long mammoth hunt by swimming in the bay behind our house. Okay, no, I'm not really that old, but once I start a running joke, I don't know when to quit.

It gets hot in Virginia in the summer. Hot and humid. My dad didn't believe in air conditioning, so during the hottest parts of the summer, I'd cool off in the calm waters. I'd see weekenders out in their sailboats and cabin cruisers, venturing sometimes to the marina next door. We had a garden, and back then I didn't kill plants just by looking at them like I do now, so I'd work in the garden or the field until I just couldn't deal anymore, and jump in the drink.

My feet got covered in crab pinch welts. Curse those arthropod demons.

I don't swim anymore. I don't live next to the water these days, and boating doesn't appeal to me except as a guest on someone else's craft. Too much work. And there's no way I'm going to deal with all the crowds, kids and germs at a public swimming pool.

When I was married, we'd go to the beach in September, when it's still warm but the place is nearly empty, other peoples' kids at school. Never did see the attraction of sitting on the beach doing nothing. If I'm going to do nothing, I might as well do it in the shade or, better yet, in air conditioning. It doesn't help that my skin is as pale as a white rabbit covered in snow, and I utterly despise putting on sunscreen.

I'm not much for separating beer by season; I'll happily drink a stout in summer and a wit in winter. But the yearly cycle of beer styles does have some effect in that the lighter beers tend to be more available in the summer.

My favorite beer season, if not my favorite weather season, is fall. Then, the Oktoberfest lagers and pumpkin ales come out, and most of them are just not available at other times of year. In the winter you have your stouts and spiced beers, and in the spring... well, there's not much special going on in the beer world in spring, except that it's the time when breweries tend to open their outdoor seating after a long winter, and you can sit there enjoying a wide variety in the open air.

But in the summer, a nice pale brew can be refreshing. While I'm not a big fan of IPAs, there are wheat beers, lagers, whites, and other brews of relatively low ABV that suit the season. But again, if I feel like drinking a heavy, high-octane stout in the 90 degree heat? I'll drink one.

So that's my favorite summer activity: drinking beer. Doesn't matter where I am: beach, mountains, suburbs, home... these days, of course, it's mostly at home.

When I can do it again -- if I can do it again -- I'm going to do a summer road trip, visit breweries in exotic locales like Michigan, Texas, or the West Coast. Maybe even Canada if they ever decide to let us barbarians back in. Most of my road trips have been fall or winter, which always runs the risk of accursed snow.

Just as long as I stay out of the direct rays of the blasted daystar and there's a beer at the end of the day.