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Summer Vacation

Dear Members and Constituents,

It’s official. Summer is here and you know what that means.

  • Record-breaking heat (yes, today is one of those days slated to approach the high-water mark)
  • Action verbs (hiking, riding, climbing, camping, swimming, rafting, paintballing)
  • Cars crashing into deer, then bursting into flames (until this morning’s news, I had not thought of deer as highly flammable – could that be the cause of so many brush fires?)
  • Kids wondering what to do (dad, I’m bored… -preferred intonation involves the use of long, drawn-out vowel sounds followed by a pout)

I’d like to dwell on this last item a little longer. Why is it not standard practice for adults to take the entire summer off? All through our formative years we are conditioned to anticipate two and a half months of leisure. Then, by the time we finally know what to do with the time, we get cut-off. Hardly seems fair. Granted, I realize that from a practical perspective, having everyone take the summer off would involve food shortages, utility outages and security lapses (not to mention unpaid mortgages). Highly inconvenient. Still, there are probably less disruptive ways to implement such a practice (how about half of us take every other summer off?). Fortunately, it is not my task to solve this problem for society, only for myself. I will therefore be out-of-office the next four Fridays. In my absence, Ed Stocker has agreed to send-out a donut reminder on Friday mornings and ensure no empty donut boxes are left in my office at the end of the day. I, for my part, will be suffering donut withdrawal in Cuenca, Ecuador (a place with no donut shops).

Of course, today none of us need suffer from donut withdrawal today. Nelson Bostrom (donut boy) makes his club debut with four dozen LaMar’s specimens. Come on down and celebrate Summer’s arrival with a deliciously sweet treat. It will take you away to that special place (emotionally, that is).

Happy Friday!

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