Summer Fun Takes Long-term Planning

Is your calendar set for summer?

For many of us it’s been oversubscribed since Christmas when everyone got together for the holidays and talked about summer plans. And you can get tied up in knots trying to fit everything in. You’re a veteran of summer planning if you can squeeze four events into one Saturday and still have time to mow the yard.

So here’s how I understand summer planning, having grown up in these parts. Your results may vary.

A lot of summer events are annual, locked in place by tradition. For example, you might always celebrate July 4 camping somewhere. You know the weather is usually good then so why not take your annual summer vacation around it? Especially since the holiday could land mid-week. Celebrating Independence Day on a Wednesday and then going right back to work just isn’t enjoyable.

There is one common planning mistake that we never really learn from – scheduling an event before we really think it through.

Pretend you met up with old friend Lenny at a Christmas party last December. After a couple glasses of stiff egg nog, it was easy for you to say, “We need to get together more often.” But that was all right. Everyone says that at events like these.

But it became a liability after a third glass when you got specific. “Hey, let’s have a party in July. How about July 20th?” You even put it on your calendar.

Just load ‘em up

Then the new year started and you got bombarded by invites (friendly reminders) to family and friend functions – graduations, weddings, reunions. This is in addition to the always present retirements, birthdays, anniversaries and funerals. You know from experience that even a token appearance at a grad party requires a card, a clean shirt and the best part of the day. And you’ll be reported if you don’t make an appearance.

Now it’s June and you suddenly remember the July party. You hadn’t noticed it because it was the only weekend of the whole summer where there were no conflicts. Suddenly, that party idea seems like a lot of work.

Maybe a more important conflict will come up for that day. Or maybe you could create one. If you do that, though, you better do it right away. It’s just not fair to wait until just before the party to announce that your wife has come down with whooping cough.

Call Lenny but if he doesn’t answer, do not leave a message that you’re canceling the party. That’s also not fair and after all, the party was your idea.

Talk to him directly and be honest. “Hey, remember we planned a have a party on July 20? Well, we just realized that’s our only free weekend this whole summer. It’s been one thing after another and we just need a weekend to ourselves.”

The exhaling you hear on the other end of the line is a good hint that Lenny wants the same thing because he completely forgot about it. He hadn’t even put it on his calendar. But now this is a really convenient, admit-nothing way to hide the fact that he might have had four glasses of egg nog at Christmas. Hey, everyone gets a trophy.

Nothing matters but the weekends

Being able to gracefully deal with all the annual summer chaos is vitally important in the Upper Midwest. We hope for three warm weather months (13 weeks). Of course, it’s the weekends that matter most. And you know that at least a few of them will have some lousy weather, including forest fire smoke. You just don’t know when. You always need a Plan B which usually means moving indoors.

The other thing to remember is that, because of our climate, you need to allow time for any warm weather projects. You can’t paint your house in winter. And you shouldn’t count on extra days to get things done just because our climate appears to be warming.

You tell yourself that you’ve learned a good lesson here. Mainly that by mid-winter next year you’ll have all the major summer dates set. Maybe there’s even an app for that. It’s a project that will take your mind off the snow piles along your driveway and the next snowstorm that’s on the way.

Best of all, you now have a free weekend in late July. Maybe it’ll rain and you can hide out at home.