I often wonder why, if they plan to start school in the middle of August, they don't test the air-conditioning earlier in the month just to see if it still works. Our newspapers are full of stories about school systems who open school and have to shut down again because the air conditioning doesn't work.

Some of them try to tough it out, and the result is a barf chain. Teachers know about this. It gets too hot and some kid loses his lunch. This triggers the barf reflex in the rest of the class and soon there is a barf chain all over the building.

Things like this happen all the time and for some reason, they just keep opening schools every year and there it goes again. How long does it take to get a simple message like that?

Back in the mid-20th Century, the early days of my teacher career, schools often didn't start until after Labor Day. Schools were usually not air conditioned then because in theory, the heat breaks after Labor Day. Many homes were not air conditioned then and so at least part of the kids were acclimated to heat.

Then one day the office got an window air conditioner and the idea spread to the teacher's lounge, the library, the cafeteria, the band room, and finally, years later, to the classroom where the kids acturally spent the bulk of their day.

I guess that was when it was decided to have school begin in August. Maybe before this century is out, it will occur to someone that an air conditioner that has been turned off for two months might not work properly when it suddenly tries to go full blast and cool down a building that has been absorbing heat all summer.

We have been roasting down here in Tennessee. To make matters worse, it hasn't rained more than a sprinkle in weeks and weeks. Construction sites are raising huge clouds of dust, gardens are dead, grass is brown, streams are low and ponds are drying up completely. Naturally, people are wilting. Three digit temperatures are an every-day thing, and a promise of low 90's later this week will be refreshing -- if it happens.

At the same time, states just to our north are having floods and even Texas is on it's way to becoming a swamp or a rain forest.

I have just scrapped my plan to celebrate my 74th birthday by riding my bicycle on the local greenway. 1.7 miles in each direction seemed like a good idea until I stepped outside at 9:00 a.m..

So how is your summer going?
Howard