Seize These Beautiful Days

“It’s a beautiful day. Don’t let it get away,” my husband emails, quoting Bono.
    So I’m writing with urgency, eager to leave my computer for the Bay, the perfect rhyme to day and away.
    I’ll feel the same tomorrow. What day isn’t beautiful this time of year? Why let any of them get away?
    At the cusp of summer, light is long and weather moderate, mostly. Despite the leonine roars of a changing climate, June’s extremes tend to cool rather than heat. At night, you can still pull on a sweater or tuck under a blanket. Leave your hat on, and you won’t have to take off all your clothes to endure the sun. With luck, that extreme will wait until the sign of the crab yields to the sign of the lion.
    Right now, possibility seems endless.
    School’s finally out throughout Chesapeake Country, the Primary election is won and lost, you can watch baseball every night and many days, vacations are on countdown, calendars are written up with weddings, anniversaries and celebrations. And there’s not yet a jellyfish in sight.
    June, as my grandmother said, “is the month of the roses. The sweetest month and the shortest.” With my birthday falling on June’s last day, there was bittersweetness in that lesson — but not enough bitter to take away the sweetness.
    Anyway, the cup is half-full. We’ve got through Monday before June gets away.
    Then we’ll fling ourselves into the pleasures July brings, starting with Independence Day, which — falling on a Friday this year — gives us a long weekend.
    Bay Weekly is going with the flow. For the next two weeks, I guarantee you a pleasure-filled paper in keeping with the season.
    We’re focusing on fireworks early in this week’s paper, so you can plot a program to double your pleasure. Chesapeake Country fireworks extravaganzas spread over two days.
    On Thursday, July 3, Southern Anne Arundel County is the place to see the show. Anchor out at about 38° 42′ or 43′ by 76° 30′ or 31′, and you can see two nearly simultaneous shows, from Herrington Harbour South in the north and Chesapeake Beach in the south. By land, alas, you’ll have to choose one with the other as distant background.
    On Independence Day, Friday, July 4, you’ll find a second helping of fireworks north, south and west, with grand shows in Annapolis, Baltimore, Bowie, Solomons and Washington, D.C. The only pity is you’ll have to choose just one.
    Wherever you choose to see the show, you’ll see it with new insight and knowledge after reading our smart summer intern Madeline Hughes’ description of the choreography that goes into each show and catalogue of the big blasts. Read on to learn the names of the explosions: That one’s a peony … a crysantheum … a willow … a palm, you’ll say, and your friends and family will be impressed.
    There’s lots more to read in this week’s paper to seize this day, for it will never again come your way, from solving mysteries with the Bay Gardener to catching perch with Dennis Doyle to commuting by bicycle with ever-provocative Steve Carr, who returns to our pages this week. The night skies will never be just like this any other week from here to eternity. All of us June babies will read our last birth month horoscope of 2014. And with this week’s crossword puzzle, Bugs in the Program, Ben Tausig retires from weekly puzzling and Bay Weekly’s pages.
    Starting with Independence Day celebrations, you’ll find lots of ways to seize each day, week and month of summer in July 3’s paper, devoted to Travels in Chesapeake County. Bay Weekly writers have combed their memories like beaches in search of favorite day trips and excursions to help you plan many beautiful days ahead for yourself, your family and all your summer visitors.
    Next week, too, some puzzling surprises will come your way.