The long, hot summer

All that was good this season

There is a Norwegian word, polarhulle, that roughly translates to “a longing for dark, cold places”. Now, I’m not quite ready to jump on a Russian icebreaker and head for the Northwest Passage, but I’ll admit that by the end of August, I’m ready for fires in the fireplace, some skiing, a good sweater, and a dram of scotch. It’s been a hot summer, in more ways than one. Back in May, my hometown was the crucible of a long simmering social reckoning and its repercussions still linger. This was, of course, on top of a pandemic that has had us all homebound since mid-March. And at last count, we’ve had about 15 days above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 C). So yeah, I’m ready for a change of seasons. 

That said, being home for this long a stretch has had its upsides. I’ve actually enjoyed this summer more than many in recent memory. We rediscovered our region through hikes, regular bike rides, a cabin stay, camping in Michigan, and even a few local dives. We have taken up gardening and birdwatching with fervor, and enjoyed our own patio on almost every nice evening since June. I thought this last week of August would be a good time to look back at some things I’ve watched, listened to, bought, or used this season. I think it will become a regular thing in this newsletter. 

I’ve been reading a lot this summer, both on the page, and listening to audiobooks (is that called reading?). I started out on a bit of a World War II history kick with a book by Ben Macintyre. “SAS: Rogue Heroes” is a look at the origins of the Special Air Service, Britain’s elite commando force. At times it read like an adventure novel, with some fascinating and almost unbelievable characters and exploits. In July, I re-read what is possibly my favorite work of fiction, “The English Patient”, by Michael Ondaatje. It’s a book you can pick up and read a single page and not need to know the context to appreciate. It is pure poetry. Then I moved on to a modern spy thriller, “Slow Horses” by Mick Herron. It’s a much less heroic take on British espionage than, say, Ian Fleming’s, but equally entertaining.

Gishani and I consume foreign suspense TV series like junk food and four stand out from this summer. “The Bureau”, a superb three-season series about the twists and turns of the French intelligence agency, centered on one rogue agent. “Hidden” is a subdued, intelligent murder mystery set in moody North Wales. “Stateless” is an Australian series based on a true story about the heartbreak of intertwined lives inside a remote immigration camp. And “Black Earth Rising” was a British series about an adopted survivor of Rwanda’s genocide who, as an adult lawyer, peels back layers of her own history while working on a case.

On a lighter note, the movie, “Fisherman’s Friends” was a delightful antidote about a group of Cornish fishermen whose musical talents are discovered by a big shot agent. That movie features a good share of sea shanties, which also figured into my summer. A friend turned me on to “The Longest Johns”, a British band that specializes in this upbeat nautical genre and it’s been a good summer soundtrack.

On the gear side of things, I dusted off the camping kit back in July for an epic camping trip up to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The beauty of good camping gear is that it rarely gets obsolete, unless you’re into ultra-lightweight backpacking. We’re still using the same tent and sleeping bags that we got 20 years ago. Just keep it clean and dry and it will serve you well. One of my all-time favorite pieces of unsung gear is a tiny Primus camp stove, that I got in an REI “scratch and dent” sale about 25 years ago. It’s been all over with me, from hiking Olympic National Park to the high camp on Longs Peak. Screw on a white gas canister, flick the igniter and it boils up a pot of water in a few minutes. Then it packs down smaller than a pack of cigarettes.

As my hair has gotten long and unruly (yup, I still have hair), I’ve been using a cap strategically all summer, both for shade and for common decency. While my hunt for the perfect boonie hat continues (if you know of one, let me know in the comments), I’ve been wearing a cotton twill Swordfish from Quaker Marine. What sets this cap apart from a normal ball cap is the brim, which is about twice as long, in true Hemingway “Old Man and the Sea” style. After you learn to stop knocking into things with it, the added shade really does make a difference in the garden, on the patio, or on a dive boat.

My Aquala Cordell dive suit kept me dry and warm in a couple of Lake Superior dives. A friend of mine, Ty, owns Aquala, a legendary old brand that he revived and he cuts and glues all the suits from his shop in Louisiana. The Cordell is an old school rubber suit in a bewitching shade of green that always gets comments, but has modern Si-Tech fill and exhaust valves.

On the watch side of things, those who know me have likely seen that I picked up a Seiko SNJ029 “Safarnie” this summer. It’s the khaki-strapped analog-digital diver made famous by Schwarzenegger himself in a couple of 1980s action films.  I dove with the watch once to christen it, but it’s mainly seen garden duty, handling the sweat and mud with aplomb. When on the bike, I tend to switch to a Garmin Instinct Tactical Solar, their latest affordable rugged activity tracker. It has a covert military stealth mode for “going dark” and a jumpmaster feature for tracking HALO skydives, both features I can confidently say I’ll never need or use. But it sure is tacti-cool. Other than that, I’ve been wearing a particular forthcoming dive watch for a long term review all summer, but I can’t talk about it yet. Trust me, it’s very very cool. More on that in about a month.

Finally, as the shoulder season arrives, I got a really nice care package of clothes from Norrøna, a Norwegian outdoors brand that deserves way more attention than it gets. Think Arc’teryx meets Fjallraven quality. They sent James and me each some items to check out for an informal review on a forthcoming Grey NATO podcast. Most of it is still a bit warm to wear in August, but I look forward to a lot of use in the next few months.

There’s the summer roundup. Other than where stated, I don’t have specific relationships with any of the brands I discussed or linked here, nor did I promise to promote anything. I just wanted to share all that’s been good on my end during what has been a long, hot, strange, but overall good summer.

Thanks for reading. —JH