How humorous to see places like New York wilting in the summer heat. While here, in God's Country, we live with heat and humidity for a good majority of the year. The last day of summer is officially in September, but it won't start to feel like fall until December.

In cities like New York and Chicago, you know it's the skyscrapers that do it. Tall, metal, brick and glass buildings that block out the wind and make every one feel compressed and canned like Vienna sausages baking on the shelf of an old country store. Is it any wonder that David Berkowitz's (the Son of Sam) shooting rampage happened in one of the hottest summers on record in the Big Apple?

Here, in the South, the weather is as good a thing as any to start a conversation with:

&#8220What do you know, man?”

&#8220I know it's hot.”

&#8220It sure is. God, it's hot.”

&#8220You're right about that.”

&#8220Hot.”

&#8220You see that Braves game last night?”

It's too hot to do just about anything. For instance, I started cutting our backyard on Saturday and abandoned the job halfway through with it, going inside the house for ice water and cool air. About an hour later I felt energized enough to tackle the final stretch.

Seriously. Preparing to cut the lawn with a push mower is like psyching one's self up for a marathon.

Football season is about to gear up, and it's really too hot for that. Next week, high school athletes will walk onto the practice field and begin preparations for the fall season. It's going to be hot work, but coaches these days understand the body's need for water, unlike in the distant past when water breaks were seen as a sign of weakness and players were encouraged to &#8220tough it out.”

There is at least once place where I don't mind the hot. On vacation at the beach. Usually, there's a breeze coming off the ocean and the nights are cool enough to make you wonder why in the world you choose to work for 51 weeks out of the year when you could be on the beach, enjoying a drink and the waves.

The solution, I suppose, is to just grin and bear it.

Not long from now we'll be complaining about the cold and cost of heating.

Kevin Pearcey is Group Managing Editor of Greenville Newspapers, LLC. He can be reached by phone at 383-9302, ext. 136 or by email at: editor@greenville.advocate.com.