‘Dog days’ indeed…

Since I was a kid, I’ve heard the expression “the dog days of August.” Sometimes, it was “the dog days of summer” or simply “the dog days.”

I never really gave it much thought. It was just another one of those folksy Southern expressions, perhaps the antithesis of being “colder than a well-digger’s butt” or something. It’s not up there with “slower than molasses” or “happy as a junebug” but it’s pretty close.

Once I decided to give it some thought, I reasoned out that it must be referring to the hottest part of the summer where it was, like, so hot all the dogs are panting or something. I mean, it makes sense, as you’ve all seen dogs just laying around in the summer time too hot to do anything else.

Well, it turns out that’s not quite it… although I was sort of on the right track… sort of.

You see, it’s actually a very specific time. The “dog days” are from July 22nd to August 22nd, or at least they are this year. They fluctuate a day or two here and there and they are based not on any dogs laying around here on earth. They refer to a dog-based constellation in the sky — Canis Major — and its brightest star, Sirius. It is most prominent in the sky from late July to late August and for at least a couple of thousand years, the period, which coincides with not only the hottest part of the summer in the Northern Hemisphere but also hurricane season and the Indian monsoon season. For that reason, the “dog days” of summer have long been held as a time of great

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unrest and bad omens. To quote Michael Scott from the TV show The Office, “I’m not superstitious, but I am a little stitious,” and man there has been a lot of unrest and bad omens over the past couple of years, so let’s hope the “dog days” don’t bring anything worse than the record heat, monkeypox, hyperinflation and whatever else we’ve been going through. I saw Vin Scully died Tuesday night.

As a big baseball fan, that’s pretty sad, and yet another celebrity death hot on the heels of the three over the weekend.

I’m not saying we’re headed for disaster or anything, but the world certainly has become somewhat of a darker place over the past few years. I’ve been especially dismayed about the state of American politics, but hey, the parties came together to pass a few bills over the past week. Gas prices are dropping, and we even got some rain, so maybe things are getting better?

I will share this, and you can scoff and say I’m making this up, but as I was typing this column I heard a faint ding on my phone, signaling a notification, and I looked at it and saw it was from a service I get the daily verses from for the paper.

They also have a little deal called the “Prime Time with God Daily Devotional,” and y’all, the scripture for today’s devotional is John 14:1-3. Now, I love the Bible and I teach Sunday school, but I will admit that I didn’t know what those verses say, so when I clicked on the notification, I was a little shivery when I read it: “Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

You know, I think everything might be OK after all.