My Summer Fantasy

My son is no stranger to certain facts of life living in Alberta, such as wearing winter boots only a few weeks into fall, or helping shovel the sidewalk a month after spring starts. I didn't realize how much of an Alberta boy he until he was doing a "Label which machine goes with which season" activity. The letter choices were Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. He said "Mom, look, if I rearrange the letters beside the snowplough, they spell SAW." In the box beside the snowplough, he had put an A in the box and beside the box, he had added W and S. I couldn't fault him for the extra letters. Thanks to the family living in the part of Alberta that has a diverse climate he had seen snowploughs out in Autumn, Winter and Spring. As well, due to living so close to the Rocky Mountains, he had printed "Winter" and "Summer" beside a pair of shorts. When the Chinook wind blows off the Rocky Mountains, many people celebrate by putting on shorts even though it is still wintertime.

Despite living in Northern Alberta, there was one sound that was not a part of my childhood during the summer. When I was a girl, we never had to turn on the furnace. I had heard of short, cold summers during the late 1800's and again in the 1930's. Unfortunately since 2002 when we became homeowners, we've had to turn on the furnace at least once during the "warm" season, usually in August. This year I have vowed that from June 21 to September 21 the furnace will stay off. I don't want Kidlet to see a "Machines of Summer Word Find" and say "They forget furnace". Big Lug is even helping out. He's agreed to leave the furnace off if I'll put the flannel sheets on.