Air Conditioning and Summer

This past weekend, we visited some lovely seaside communities for Official Visits and I was introduced to Ocean Air Conditioning. That was when the lady in the Masonic Hall in Ventura explained to me that they had a manual air conditioning system. When I asked about it, I was informed that the air conditioning is the Pacific Ocean and that they open the windows by hand. So although the meeting itself was a lot of fun, it was a touch warm for me. Now I will be the first to admit that I am completely sun soluble. (Everyone knows that evil witches melt in water, well good witches melt in sunlight - go figure. :-) Heat and I are not friends and I have discovered after now almost three years of travel, that from June to September, most of California is rather quite warm. Some places are just uncomfortable and others let you cook your eggs in your car or on the hood without actually having to start the engine. Some places are absolutely lovely once the sun goes down, but of course it's not going down until 8:30 or so. So in putting together a calendar and in choosing spring clothes, heat seems to be an important factor. The problem is, there are just too many hot places to go. You just can't put them all on days that are not in the summer. So what I have to figure out is where can we go in the summer that has air conditioning that is not "manual" and then we can go there. As if putting a calendar together wasn't hard enough. Normally I wouldn't be worrying about this just yet, but I have some groups that are having anniversaries during what we all expect to be my year and they already want to discuss possible dates because halls and big meeting places get filled up and often book thirteen to twenty-four months ahead. This makes my head spin because I don't want to consider that I am just twenty-four months or so away from presenting a calendar. Oh my Beeeeeeeeeeeeep! AAAHHH! So in considering these anniversary dates, I have to ask myself if I can accommodate what the group wants, which is usually a date close to the anniversary and to figure that out, I have to consider when I can be in that group's area, flow of travel and temperature in their area, fixed event dates I can't change, like Grand Assembly for Rainbow and Grand Bethel for Job's Daughters, Grand Lodge, Grand York Rite etc., etc., and then how to mesh this date with other dates I can set, travel time from work if I need to take days off and the general availability of airports and flights. How does anyone actually get the calendar done?! I guess it must be like the dress selection. A quarter of the people will love their dates, a quarter of the people will hate their dates and the other half will just say oh and go along. I guess the secret is to make sure that the same quarter of the people is always the one hating what you do. :-) Of course, if the doomsayers are right and the world is going to end on December 21, 2012, then I just have to be installed, go to some Chapter installations, and have the Christmas Party at our Senior Living Community and forget the rest of the calendar for my year because the world will come to an end. But I am told that they expect me to put a calendar together anyway, just in case the world survives. That doesn't seem very fair. :-) Next weekend, we are off for Fourth of July. Wow, I wonder if I will get any of my house picked up? Probably not, but if you're going to dream, dream big!