Long weekend
Memorial Day weekend is upon us once again. The first (albeit unofficial) weekend of summer, this marks the time on any year-round Cape Codder's calendar when we pull the blankets over our head and pray for autumn.
By now all of the seasonal businesses on Cape Cod are open and expecting an influx of visitors; Chambers of Commerce are greedily rubbing their hands together in glee at the thought of hundreds of thousands of tourists buying t-shirts, lobster toys and expensive meals at area restaurants, and those of us who live here simply hope for the best as we plan to double our commute times to get anywhere, rely on our knowledge of back roads and understand that no matter what we do, we're going to end up waiting.
Some people say that we should be grateful that the Cape economy is as robust as it is in the summertime. Me, I don't give a shit. Nothing about my life is dependent at all on vacationers coming to the beach -- it's only a matter of circumstance that I live on the Cape to begin with.
So I'm not particularly thankful for their presence or grateful for how tourist incomes might affect the local economy, and I largely regard their presence here as an unwelcome reminder of why I don't live in a more densely populated suburban or urban area.
In fact, I wish more Chambers of Commerce across the Cape would get their heads out of their asses and try to figure out ways to make this economy distinctly less dependent on tourism as a way to balance the budget.
At least the weather will be mild this weekend -- it's been an oddly mild spring, and this weekend calls for temperatures in the upper 60s, though pretty much unbroken sunshine until for the next several days. We're going to be taking it easy for the next few days, though we plan to drive off-Cape on Monday to spend some time with friends who are having a cookout.