As I am sitting here writing this on a beastly hot afternoon in New York City, I am thinking of an old song by a group called Mungo Jerry, which is somewhat of a summertime classic. I reworked the words a bit to talk about summertime reading....

When we left off last week I was headed to Texas. I had forgotten my own advice about not flying at night during the summer because of the travel delays that are precipitated by thunderstorms and found myself stuck for hours going both ways. There is only one way to beat this --- a good book to escape with. I had this week's Beach Bag title with me --- THE MANNY --- and I found myself happily ignoring those ominous announcements that go something like "In 39 minutes we will move into position and will be number 22 for takeoff!" Instead I read --- and laughed --- a lot.

I love summer. I love that school got out this week. I love that the alarm clocks all can be set an hour later when my biological clock usually is timed to go off anyway. I love that I have more time to spend with my boys than usual. I love that they cannot use homework as an excuse for not cleaning their rooms.