Long-time blog readers know how much I love the Summer season. And the Summer Solstice is probably my favorite day of the year.

A Very Happy Summer Solstice

The three things I love most about this time of year are:

1. Warmth – Being cold is one of my least favorite things. I often say I’d rather be way too warm than even a little bit chilly.
2. Brightness – I love the longer days of sun. Last night it was still somewhat bright around 9:00 PM even with a Summer storm coming through.
3. Activity – I am much more active during the Summer months than most other seasons.

Last night we had a thunderstorm come through to welcome in the Solstice. It knocked out our area’s electricity from about 6:15 PM until 1:30 AM this morning. My specific area got very little rain from the storm and overall, it was incredibly peaceful and nice in my house last evening.

It was a bit too dark to knit without additional lighting. When the lights went out, I got a lantern and finished The Front Runner. Despite the arc of the storyline, I thought the writing got a little better at the end. But still not enough to add this book to the Gay Men’s Must-Read list. It reminded me of two important things about being gay. First, I don’t think a woman should be trusted to write the intimate thoughts of a gay man. There were a few times where Patricia Nell Warren just got things wrong. Second, it reminded me of just how much growth we’ve made as a community in being more inclusive. When I was writing the introduction to my book, there was a section where I discuss how there wasn’t a cohesive LGBT community. This book reminded me of that period of time in a lot of it’s ideas about manhood and the gay men’s community.

I ended up going to bed at 9:00 PM after finishing the book. The bedroom was a bit more warm than we usually keep it since the air conditioning was still not working. We also didn’t open any windows because of the storm. But I still got under light bed covers and fell asleep instantly on Solstice eve.

Current Knitting

I have to admit that I’m struggling a bit with my current lace knitting project. Here’s my progress (as best as I can photograph it) on the Under the Harvest Moon lace shawl.

I’m on the 37th row but it took me forever to get this far. The second chart starts with row 25 and I had to knit and reknit and rip out and tink back multiple times to get that row to work. I’m not sure if my recent cold was affecting my ability to concentrate, but I just couldn’t get it right. Once I finally got past row 25, the subsequent rows weren’t exactly easy.

I’m just getting rid of the final remnants of the cold, so hopefully my concentration will be back working again.