Later today, my sister and I will get in the car and drive down I-95 to meet up with most of our immediate family on a South Carolina beach. I have no business going. I'm cramming a week of work into a weekend, and I'm stressed and therefore eating potato chips about it, but, as I've written before, this is just something that I need to do, in a place I need to do it, with the most important people in my life. 

It's hot, the days are way long, and I find myself lolling about, facing a million deadlines. These are the times when the big questions pop into my head. Like, "What's in a pet blog, anyway?" The BlogHer blog directory, excellent as it is, says, hey, pretty much anything. Got animals? Nice. 

Summer is consistent for me in as many ways as it is not, it turns out. Jobs, schedules and styles all change, but from year to year, I know a few things for sure. I'll complain about the D.C. humidity, but never as much as I complain about ice falling from the sky in the winter. I'll fall in love with fresh white corn and tomatoes all over again (go away, Salmonella, go away.) And every July, I'm likely to be in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for a weeklong family beach vacation that is much a ritual as a getaway.

Summer doesn't officially begin for another week and I don't know about your city, but already the D.C. area has been hit with oppressively high temperatures and weird bouts of heavy rain more commonly seen later in the season. Although this is the first summer in 13 years that I haven't had to look out for the impact of heat and humidity on a dog as physically challenged by both as my Boston Terrier, I'm reminded that this change of seasons and temperature is a critical time to look out for the well-being of our pets.

I was eating in a museum cafe last weekend when a mom and son walked by my table. "Nathan, you are helpless and annoying," she said to him. I winced. And then I Twittered it.