Summertime and the Living is Exhausting

It’s summertime, and I’m exhausted. I cannot keep up the pace.

Summer used to be about relaxing and taking a break from usual routines.

Summer used to be about vacations and long, lazy days at the beach.

Summer used to be about suntans and sunburns. Over-chlorinated swimming pools and bring-tears-to your-eyes salty water ocean waves. About letting the mind wander and go free, watching the clouds and the waves.

The TV got a rest. There were too many reruns. Instead, there were summer book reads. Trashy novels for middle-aged moms (and dads). Required book lists for the kids.

But not this summer. Not for our family, and I bet, not for yours.

Now summer is about binge-watching. We’ve gone from green scenes to video screens.

Fun for the Whole Family!

We gather around the TV, not the campfire. Instead of parking the RV, we Americans park our butts on the couch until our collective eyeballs, backs, and brains ache. (Note to self: binge-watch all six seasons of The Americans.)

Not that I’m complaining. I’m the first to admit it. It is fun. My son and I look forward to our seasonal sofa rendezvous, watching the ladies of Litchfield Prison on Orange is the New Black.

Glow. Yes to the Dress. Fauda. Name the show of your choice but fess up. Sure, as you’ve got a Netflix subscription (or the password to your mother’s subscription), you’ve got a summer binge-worthy guilty pleasure.

Summertime used to be about blockbusters at the movie theater. What are the big action flicks this summer? I don’t know. I cannot get up from the couch … literally … I’m so out of shape from watching my “now available for viewing” summer series.

And it’s not just Netflix that’s to blame for my watery eyes, sore back, and spreading backside. It’s the entire world of online, cable, and subscription services we now live in.

Don’t have a subscription to Hulu, but wish you could see The Handmaid’s Tale? Well, wait a bit and you’ll be able to download the whole thing on Amazon. However, viewer advisory: it’s a binge that will have you tossing and turning in your sleeping – and waking – hours.

Summertime and the Binge Stay-cation

For a variety of reasons, it’s been tough for Handsome Hubby and me to get away this summer. But thanks to this exciting world of non-stop new summer viewing opportunities, come nighttime we don’t face months of network repeats. Instead of viewing and vacation deprivations, I’ve been exposed to sights I might otherwise never have seen. Prison riots. A zombie apocalypse or two – or three! Murders by the dozen … in NYC, LA, London, Berlin, Oslo, Outer Space, even underwater.

And for all these adventures in viewing, I haven’t gotten one mosquito or bedbug bite! I haven’t been forced to pen one dreary “Wish you were here” postcard!

Honestly, now that I’m getting older, these voyeur vacations are easier on my body than hiking through the Sierras or white water rafting down the South Fork of the Salmon River.

Also, some of this binge-watching is down-right educational. I’ve watched so many episodes of Forensic Files, I’m sure I could ace job interviews with both the local police department and county coroner!

Summertime and the Viewing is Easy

So, while some say with enthusiasm, “Road trip, hurray!” I say, “You must be trippin’. Netflix is my destination of choice!”

I mean why stress and diet trying to fit into a swimsuit? I’m sitting back and staying chill, watching Drew Barrymore follow her “unusual” eating regime on the Santa Clarita Diet. Why dash to the Mall to buy expensive cruise wear? I’m lounging leisurely at home, all the while Yes to the Dress, Atlanta.

Why fight traffic congestion to see our nation’s scenic byways when in just a few days I can flick the remote to a show called Ozark and see all the greenery I want?

And so, to all your hearty stay-at-homers, I proudly proclaim, “Binge, baby, binge! It’s summertime–and to paraphrase the song, ‘the viewing is easy.'”

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Thank you, Amy, Gail, Shannon, and Kellie for the great binge-worthy and binge-watching contributions to this story! I couldn’t have written this without your help.