Hard to beat summer here, but that's just my opinion

So long summer, we hardly knew you.

The north country's best season sort of spit the bit in 2009. It rained. It was mostly cool. It rained. But that doesn't mean summer up here was a bummer. Summer in the north country is like what the late comedian Richard Pryor once said about sex and pizza: When it is good, it is very, very good. And when it is bad, it's still pretty good.

I got lucky during the pretty good summer of '09. Mother Nature cooperated almost the whole time I was on vacation. There was nothing but sun and blue sky as a back drop for a couple of eagles who flew overhead when I was in a boat fishing and touring the Thousand Islands in August. That same day we got close enough to a loon to see that one of her little bitty babies was hitching a ride atop her back while its sibling floated just behind mom on the St. Lawrence River.

This was way better than pretty good. Even my friend and guide who grew up in Alex Bay and might just be the only legitimate curmudgeon under 30 was positively excited about the wildlife gifts we were treated to that day. Plus we caught some fish and boated our limit of empty Labatt Blue Light cans before docking at a waterside bar. Just another day in paradise.

OK, so maybe the north country isn't paradise. But it is still a pretty good place to be. We live where people vacation. Sometimes in the hubbub of everyday life that is easy to forget.

I forget almost every winter. The athlete in me packed up a bunch of torn knee ligaments and left town years ago, so I don't do a lot of the winter sporty things like skiing or snowshoeing. I don't understand the lure of standing over a hole in ice to fish in sub-zero temperatures. I don't own a snowmobile. I don't hunt. So my winter fun is pretty much limited to mocking people who vehemently opposed the development of Potsdam's Walmart when I see them in the tofu aisle of the big box while doing my weekly grocery shopping. That's fun and gets me out of the weather, but it's not the kind of thing you'd find on a brochure for paradise.

I'll be the first to admit that north country winters can be brutal. When they are bad, they are very, very bad. And when they are good, they are still pretty bad. But I have months before I have to start really griping about that. Today I am all about the summer I love. A summer that except for spurts and spots, didn't show up for true until just before Labor Day.

A little late for my garden and the tomatoes that have struggled under gray skies and through cool days, but in time to remind me that there are fewer better places to be than here when the livin' is easy and the corn stalks are high.

Be assured that I am not being paid by any area Chamber of Commerce to write this column. And I am not saying nice things about the north country summer because my girlfriend fears that the more-controversial positions I've taken in this space are going to get us run out of town and urged me to tone it down for a while. I told Love Nugget that I would never steer away from controversy simply because she wanted to quit wearing a babushka and sunglasses when she went out with me in public.

The truth is that opinions are going to spark people to praise you if they agree with your position or call you a jackass if they don't. http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20090910/OPINION02/309109975 It doesn't matter what the topic is.

I know there are people out there who don't understand that the north country during the summer is closer to Nirvana than it is to Ottawa. These are the folks who don't fish or swim or hike or camp or golf or appreciate seeing eagles overhead. They are the ones who couldn't care less that they could walk down to the end of the block on a breezy summer night and see a majestic great blue heron silhouetted against a fading sun in the rippling waters of the Raquette River. They are the ones who would call me a jackass for thinking it is special that I can and do. And I do it a lot.

I know there are still plenty of good days left to enjoy before Old Man Winter comes around to screw things up, but the passing of Labor Day forces you to acknowledge that another north country summer is in the books. Maybe it wasn't the best one ever, but it was still pretty good. It always is when you are a jackass lucky enough to live in the north country.