Lhude sing cuccu, it says. Worth a try, I thought. But it didn't work. Regardless of my best effort, we've been putting up with weather more appropriate to early April than to any part of June.

I long for the widespread appearance on the streets of the gay summer uniform, which to date I 've seen only only a very few of the hardiest souls.

New England is having the same malady as NYC, or worse. Viz. my plaint of two years ago, about summer up here being over before it starts.

Meanwhile, a partial remedy...

Sumer is icumen in.

Mix the tonic and the gin.

(Richard Armour, Punctured Poems: Famous First and Infamous Second Lines)

...which in turn calls up Ezra Pound's opinion of the opposite season:

Winter is icumen in, ( 1 )

Lhude sing Goddamm, ( 2 )

Raineth drop and staineth slop,

And how the wind doth ramm!

Sing: Goddamm.

Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us,

Freezeth river, turneth liver,

An ague hath my ham.

Damm you; Sing: Goddamm.

Goddamm, Goddamm, 'tis why I am, Goddamm,

So 'gainst the winter's balm.

Sing goddamm, damm, sing goddamm,

Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM.

( 1 ) "Note.--This is not folk music, but Dr. Ker writes that the tune is found under the Latin words of a very ancient canon." (Ezra Pound's note on this poem.) Pound parodies the Middle English lyric "Sumer is icumen in," and his reference to W. P. Ker (1855-1923) and to the source Ker discovered, shows an admiration for classical forms.

( 2 ) Lhude: a pun of "loud" and "lewd."

http://www.bachlund.org/Ancient_Music.htm

You guys can wax poetic about the rain, but summer is at hand. It's not a poem I like, but I do like this Sinatra song:

The summer wind came blowin' in

From across the sea

It lingered there to touch your hair

And walk with me

All summer long

we sang a song

And then we strolled that golden sand

Two sweethearts and the summer wind

Like painted kites, those days and nights

They went flying by

The world was new beneath the blue

Umbrella sky

Then softer than a piper man

One day, it called to you

I lost you I lost you to

The summer wind

The autumn wind

And the winter winds

They have come and gone

And still those days

Those lonely days

They go on and on

And guess who’s sigh`s

His lullabies through nights that never end

My fickled friend,

The summer wind

The summer wind warm summer wind

Mmm the summer wind

The hell with waxing poetic. I'm in Texas and when I wake up at 5am it's 78 degrees outside with 90% humidity. You can have my summer.

The hell with waxing poetic. I'm in Texas and when I wake up at 5am it's 78 degrees outside with 90% humidity. You can have my summer.

Damn right! I walked out the door at 1:00 p.m. and the heat just bitch-slapped me across the face. Humidity was like breathing hot fog. It's not even July yet, for Christ's sake. Thank God for air conditioners.

The hell with waxing poetic. I'm in Texas and when I wake up at 5am it's 78 degrees outside with 90% humidity. You can have my summer.

To rip-off Horace Greely more or less... 'Go north young man! I heartily recommend it. Best though to vacate the northlands by the start of November if one can afford multiple nests. I have grown weary of the snow, finally.

While this has been an unsually wet and cool Spring for the Northeast I still much prefer over the H&H of Florida. I also love summers in the Northwest. Seattle and Vancouver are wonderful. Florida is best enjoyed in the late fall and winter and even early Spring.

It was a long time coming, but here it is, having its equatorial way with us. As the man said:

"The sun is far too sultry,

And we must avoid its ultry-

Violet rays."

The man himself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdEnxNog56E