10 Reasons Why I'm Officially Done With The Summer Season

I'm 43 years old. For as long as I can remember, I've always loved the Summer season. I look forward to it every year. I usually get irritated when retailers replace Summer merchandise with Fall merchandise. My nerves are pinged when pumpkin-spiced-everything surfaces earlier and earlier every year. I dread the first frost or the evening when we turn the heat on for the first time in months. This year, for the first time ever, I can't wait until the Summer season ends.

Yep, you read that correctly. I have my reasons. I'm not sure if this is a once in a lifetime occurrence or if I will dread the Summer season when I'm 44, but either way, this year, I'm done with it.

1. The constant hum of the air conditioners. We've had 3 heat waves this year. For us New England folks, that's a big deal. Typically, I don't have a problem with the heat. I do, however, despise humidity. We haven't had that balance of New Englan Summer weather where it's hot during the day and cool during the evenings. This is the first Summer that I've used the air conditioner at night. I'm usually comfortable with the window opened and a box fan. Not this year. We've used the air conditioners 'round the clock and it's getting on my nerves.

2. Summer allergies? Are you serious? My seasonal allergy symptoms flare up during the Spring and Fall season, but Summer? This is a first for me. It's been horrible. Taking my daily allergy pill has been useless.

3. The Gypsy Moth Caterpillar infestation and then the swarms of moths. In May, we were invaded by tiny, baby Gypsy Mother Caterpillars.  It was bad. After spending 5 minutes in the backyard, we'd be covered, bitten, and have tiny itchy red dots all over our bodies. They bit our kids too. Then, a month later, the caterpillars grew up. They ate the leaves off the trees, covered our front porch, and caused a lot of problems for the people here in Connecticut. The caterpillar poop was the worst. It covered cars, driveways, clogged pool filtration systems, made a mess of houses, etc. Finally, the fungus that killed them slowly kicked in. However, it wasn't soon enough. The Gypsy Moths were everywhere. In swarms. Being outside for any length of time sucked.

4. Ticks and Lyme Disease. This has been the worst year ever for ticks and Lyme Disease. Last year, towards the end of August, Lisa was bitten on the head and tested positive for Lyme Disease. This year, a few days before our backyard anniversary party, she tested positive again. Another bite on the head. About an inch from last year's bite. She was put on the same regimen of medications she was last year. She's still one one of the medications and the side effect is sensitivity to sunlight and heat. That's put a damper on our plans to walk the beach and enjoy a few other outdoor activities.

5. Limited baking. When Bodacious Biscuit Love launched in October of 2013, we baked almost every single day. When the Summer season hit, we had to get an extra air conditioner to keep the house cool while the oven was on. Even then it was a challenge. This year, we made a decision. If the temperature outside exceeded 90 degrees, we would not bake. It got too hot in here. The kids were miserable. I was miserable. I wasn't going to put our kids through that again.

6. Extended dry times on the DIY Dog Mom Projects. Waiting for paint to dry in a home cooled by air conditioners takes longer. On days when the outside temperatures were cooler, it was humid. I didn't bother opening the windows. For a few of our projects, we used Kilz Primer and professional paint like Glidden or Behr. Those projects were painted outside. They took forever to dry because of the heat and humidity.

7. Coco's allergies. Our Coco has allergies. Lots of them...from certain shampoos to flea saliva. He suffers from seasonal allergies as well. Last Fall and this Spring, his allergies were minimal. For the first time since he joined our family in 2012, he didn't have the usual itching or a hot spot or two. This Summer, his allergies are already in full swing, just like mine. He's on his usual allergy medicine and ointments.

8. The copious amount of comments about our absence of Summer vacation photos. They surface every year. The theme of these comments is, "You and Lisa need to go away on vacation." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. At this point, we pretty much ignore these comments and suggestions. We're happy with our vacation-free life. We don't miss it. We have no regrets.

9. Houseplant gnats. For those of you who have houseplants, you're probably familiar with houseplant gnats. We've always had houseplants. We've always had the occasional houseplant gnat. This year, it's been unbearably horrible. We don't know why. What we do know is they've been quite the nuisance, to the point where we put all of our houseplants outside for the remainder of the summer.

10. Ice Cream is suddenly overrated. For most of my life, I've been an ice cream aficionado. I ate a lot of ice cream as a kid and a good portion of my adulthood. As I glided through my 30's, I didn't eat it often. Having the occasional ice cream cone was more of a treat than anything. Once I entered the "over the hill" age of 40, I ate ice cream less and less. It started to not agree with me. It didn't matter what brand we purchased or what ice cream stand we visited, within an hour after eating ice cream, my stomach would be torn up. Now, I very seldom eat ice cream. If I do, it's because I'm seriously craving it...enough so to endure the consequences.

It's the second week of August. I'm ready for Fall and Halloween decorations, apples, pumpkins, baking whenever I want, chilly temperatures, the death of Summer bugs, and not having to listen to the sound of air conditioners.