August's theme

Ahh... August - the Sunday of summer. June is the jump start to the summer, not quite in full swing some parties are planned, but the real reverie is in July when the Independence day holiday kick starts the party season and more vacations are planned. In August, things wind down, the days are already getting shorter and preparations start for going back to school, but there is still time for some reflection and a few more festivities.

The dog days of summer are so named for Sirius - the dog star. "Dog days" is also August's theme. I will begin by reading The Bad Dog's Diary - A Year in the Life of Blake: Lover...Fighter...Dog by Martin Howard. The copy I am reading comes to me by way of the Middleborough, Massachusetts Public Library. This book is a definitive "year of" book beginning on January 1 and ending on December 31. It is written from the dog's perspective. It is classified as fiction, but the inside flap indicates that the author's own two dogs "provided the inspiration behind almost all of the events in this book..."

I saved this quote about "dog days" from A.J. Jacob's book The Know It All for posting when I got to this point in my blog:

“One of my proudest quiz moments was knowing the origin of the phrase “dog days of summer.” (It derives from the ancient belief that the Dog Star, Sirius, gives off the heat of a second sun, so when it’s rising it causes the weather to be particularly hot.)”