I like August ... the Dog Days of Summer

Yes, I like August, for a lot of reasons.

But I am a dog person.

The football season is almost here in August. Labor Day is a month away. Opening kickoff at the home opener in Austin, and all is well in the world.

Yes, it's hot here in Texas in August, like ... well, it's been for centuries, no, millenia. If not for the invention of the air conditioner, no humans would live on the Gulf Coast.

For that matter, no one would live in Dallas, either. They tell themselves that it's "drier" and not "so dreadfully hot" like it is in Houston. Good grief, they make me laugh. DFW is a Hellhole; let no one persuade you otherwise. But the Emperor has no clothes there, you see (apparently, he is sweating his butt off, too). So, they build a baseball stadium with no roof -- they want to be different than big brother H-Town, you know -- and the Texas Rangers pitching staff fades ... every August. Yesterday, August 1, even Cliff Lee lost.

I like August. Heat reveals a lot.

My old man, the man who taught me to love America, was born in August. He loved summertime, too.

I like August.

We used to hit the football field for our first practices in August. I remember taking the field on the first day of practice in full pads when it was 106 degrees. We could do this because, before the X-Box generation, we actually spent a lot of time outdoors in the summer ... yes, even in August.

Rather than ignoring and avoiding the heat in our lives, we used to (and some of us still do) venture into it ... and survive.

It's the deepest, hottest part of summer and things seem (and maybe they are) quiet, still, almost afraid to move and thus begin sweating endlessly. It's God's way of requiring us to slow it down ... to avoid vaporizing or melting, I guess.

Still, the autumn is coming. And without the heat, we would be unable to appreciate a fall day.

The apex of the summer heat reminds me of the coming cool of the autumn ... sometime late in October around here. The long, hot summer at its hottest reminds us that nothing here in the temporal realm -- good or bad, cold or hot -- lasts forever.

I like August.

In August, while the world seems to be taking it easy and the 24/7 media scrambles to feign relevance during the slowest of news months, the Haves and Have-Nots are separating themselves in MLB.

When the heat bears down, we find out what we are made of, it seems.

Life is like that.

So, I like August.

Congress goes home in August, too. Yet, the world keeps right on turning. And then (especially in even-numbered years) the Congress starts to seemingly care about the voters. I love that.

August reminds us of some good things that stay the same as life slows down.

And it also reminds us that autumn ... and a pleasant change ... is on the way.

I love August.