The first hot, lazy Saturday morning of the season

It is fitting. The Red Wings won their 11th Stanley Cup on Wednesday night. They beat he Penguins 4-2 and they did it in Pittsburgh. It was warm in Pittsburgh that night and I could tell that the ice in Mellon Arena was marginal. Freshly resurfaced ice should look like wet glass. However, after the Zamboni did its work, the ice in Pittsburgh had a dull grey hue to it. Both teams had to deal with the poor playing conditions, and our beloved Red Wings came out on top.

You might be wondering how a Zamboni, resurfaced ice and a hot June morning are interrelated. Well, here is my line of reasoning. The Stanley Cup Playoffs take approximately 8 weeks from start to finish. The Playoffs begin in early April. Sixteen of the 32 NHL teams make the playoffs, which consist of four rounds of a best-of-seven series. The first team to win sixteen games wins the claim to the Cup. If your team is talented enough to make it to the final round of the playoffs, it will be late May. The weather in early April here in the Enchanted Mitten can be a little fickle. The average daily temperature on 1 April was 56F. Fast forward eight weeks. The average daily temperature now is 78F. Spring has come and gone and we are fast approaching the Summer Solstice. Our grass is growing so quickly that even a day or two after it is cut, it looks like it needs another mowing.

Now, I need to tie the aforementioned themes together. Samson woke me up at his customary time of 5:30AM. He got out of his bed, walked over to mine and started squeaking. The squeaking meant one of three things: 1) I have to go potty, 2) I am hungry, 3) I want to go outside and play. I begrudgingly got up to take Samson out for a walk. I attached the leash to his collar, threw a couple of poop bags into our walking pouch and opened our side door. I was immediately hit by a blast of warm, moist air (we had the AC running all night). It was as if the air itself was wrapping a warm wet blanket around me. For a few moments it felt like I was back in Guam or the Philippines, two of the most humid places on the planet. I took Samson out to attend to his needs and I had a few moments to think about the weather, the Wings winning the Cup and the possibility of a Game Seven.

Had the Wings lost Game 6 on Wednesday night, there would have been a Game 7 at Joe Louis Arena today. "The Joe," as it is also known as, has a reputation for having some of the best ice in the NHL, regardless of the outside air temperature. I then realized, if it is hot and muggy in early June and the Red Wings are still playing, it is a good thing. The Wings hoisted the Cup at a victory parade in Detroit yesterday (where it was 92F!), and now summer can truly begin. The Summer Solstice this year in the Northern Hemisphere is on 20 June, and now the lazy, hot and long summer days are upon us. Michigan is well known for its fantastic summer days and today we will have our first hot, lazy and hazy day of the season.