This is August. The last month of summer.
Usually it's hot and dry, and thus you'll hear the expression "dog days of summer."
However, the Farmer's Almanac lists the modern dog days as lasting forty days from July 3 to August 11. Curious, I googled the subject* to learn the history of dog days.
It seems when the constellation Sirius appeared in the sky near the end of July, that marked the beginning of the hottest days of the year. The Romans dubbed this period "dies canicular" or "days of the dog star," which was eventually translated to simply "dog days."
But time passes and the earth rotates, thus that dog star isn't in the same position the Romans and Greeks saw it. It's moved, and will continue to move as time advances. One day it will become the dog days of winter.
What's the dog days of summer got to do with writing? For me, it means I'm not writing.
I'm not writing because this is my favorite time of the year—Fair Season.
The writing goes on hold in favor of fair French fries, ox-roast sandwiches, peach pie, junk fries, lemonade. There's the carny sounds of dozens of vendors, the music of the Ferris wheel, the clink of the ring toss on glass bottles. There's the chicken dinner at the fireman's stand—and the 4H dairy ice cream wagon. Ah, fair and food, gotta love it!
In the barns, buildings, and arenas, a menagerie of cows, horses, sheep, goats, ducks, rabbits, et. al. And the best building ever? The Home Show department where I enter my sewing, crafts, flowers, and sometimes baked goods.
And in that Home Show building, I am astonished by others handiwork, their art in cloth and yarn. There's baked and canned goods and garden vegetables. I'm speechless when looking at quilts. Just how can half-inch squares so tiny become such a picture-perfect quilt?
Being as it is the dog day's of summer, the last weeks before Labor Day, and the end of picnics and vacations, it's the best excuse I have for not writing.
What's your best excuse for not writing?
* — I researched this before the switch to AI at Google. However, before posting, I redid the search. I got paragraph summaries. Only after skimming down the page did I find the original information. In other words, it took far longer to search than the first time. And AI is touted as saving time? For reference, check out last month's post.
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