And please note that August is just a month after July, when the new interns start practicing medicine (emphasis on “practicing”) in our teaching hospitals. Word to the wise: Stay healthy. If you’re hit by a bus, go home and take an aspirin. Don’t go to the hospital on a voluntary basis over the summer.

Moving on, the wasteland of TV is even more desolate in August. If you’re of an age when you start thinking, Did I read this book before? Did I wear this shirt yesterday? Did I take my meds today? then you’ll lose it in August, when everything you watch on TV has the familiarity of having been seen before. It’s Groundhog Day every day.

All the creative minds have gone fishing. There’s no new TV, very few new books, dreadful movies, no new nothing. Why should that be, in the fullness and ripeness of the summer?

One exception: We do have delicious tomatoes and corn coming in, and an abundance of summer fruit. But you can’t watch a decent show or crack a new book while you eat your juicy plum. And if you choke on the pit, you can’t go to the hospital. If you then develop a phobia of pitted fruit, you’re out of luck.

Of course, the saddest thing about August is that Congress goes on vacation. How can the country get through the next five weeks with our congressmen and congresswomen away from their busy desks in Washington? Think of all they’ve accomplished during this session. Yes, go ahead, think about it. You can do that in a second.

Can we at least console ourselves with the knowledge that they’ve worked their hardest for the country in a spirit of good will and conciliation? No, we can’t.

In fact, before they left, GOP representatives voted for the 40th time to abolish Obamacare. What a morally exhausting exercise in bombast and small-mindedness.

Sounds like an August event.

Copyright © 2013 Randi Kreiss. Randi can be reached at randik3@aol.com.