Field Journal

It begins the morning after Independence Day. The fireworks have faded, vacation plans are mostly behind us, and summer settles into its hottest routine. For much of the country, the weeks between July 5 and Labor Day, or until school starts again, become a strange sort of waiting room. The excitement of summer has passed, but autumn still seems far away. Day after day, the temperatures climb, humidity hangs in the air, and even the thought of spending an afternoon outside ca