To begin with, let’s look at last week’s daily high temperatures here in Decatur, Georgia.

September 3 – 88 degrees

September 4 – 91 degrees

September 5 - 90 degrees

September 6 - 85 degrees

September 7 - 87 degrees

September 8 - 89 degrees

September 9 – 89 degrees

September 10 – 85 degrees

Sounds like great swimming weather, right?  WRONG!!!  For whatever reason, Atlanta area pools close after Labor Day weekend even though the weather is good for at least 3-4 more weeks after that with comfortable swimming temperatures.  Yes this has been a hot summer but the past few weeks’ temps have been nothing out of the norm for this area.  I’m not sure how most areas south of here, like Florida, handle their pools open but I can’t fathom a pool being closed in Miami after Labor Day and I’m hope they’re not.  It’s a given that most southerners are not hardy folk when it comes to cooler weather but I do find it laughable that pools, municipal and private, all shut down come the first week of September.

I don’t buy the “kids are in school and those are the ones who normally are lifeguards” excuse since all schools start weeks before Labor Day down here.  It’s also not a valid argument since all subdivsion pools close the same time and those are mostly unsupervised.  So why the same shutdown date?  Since a majority of subdivisions have pools down here, and each one of those homeowners pays a monthly maintenance fee for those pools, I’d want access to the water when the temperatures are still in the 90s.  Much like I wouldn’t expect a pool to open before July 15 in Yellowknife in the Canadian Northwest Territories, I wouldn’t expect a pool to close in the south much before September 15 at the earliest.

Speaking of warm weather, I’d like the temperatures to drop a tad now that we’re in September so I can start to enjoy the “autumn” style beers – Octoberfests, Pumkin ales and the like.  It’s hard to get into an autumn mode when you still are sweating while wearing a t-shirt, shorts and sandals in the shade.  It’s time now to get into the beers laced with spices which you associate with Halloween and pumpkins and all things “harvesty” and that’s hard to do when it feels like you’re in Mexico.

It’s the same thing with football down here.  Besides the fact that I’m disgusted with football currently, it really is hard to get into “football mode” when it’s too hot to have a baseball jersey on, much less football pads.  To me, football is meant to be played on a cool, crisp autumn day and the season climaxes with bitter cold and snow.  To me, there are not many more sporting events on TV with better eye candy value than a football game played in the middle of a blizzard where they have to shovel off the 10-yard markers every quarter in able for teams to know where they are on the field.

And that’s when it’s time for the heavy holiday beers!