It's summertime, and livin's not all that easy

"Summertime, and the livin' is easy" begins a George Gershwin song that many of us can hum. When it comes to California's four indistinct seasons, a majority of residents might cite summer as their favorite time of year.

But to others, summer isn't such a hot time.

If you have children, July and August can be a 62-day challenge, and a budget buster. Summer camps are not free. Many are downright expensive.

And taking a family summer vacation isn't as easy as it used to be. You've got to plan ahead and coordinate everyone's schedules. For example, a lot of students go to summer school--not because they flunked a course, but because they want a lighter schedule for fall or winter.

Parents must check their respective work calendars. Many small businesses observe a first-come, first-served policy regarding employees' vacation schedules.

Another downside to summer is the heat. In Southern California, we're lucky because we can often turn off the air conditioner at sundown and just open the windows. But that's not the case in the middle of the afternoon, peak consumption hours for electricity.

When demand exceeds supply, power companies deliver rolling brownouts.

Does anyone else find it hard to believe that we occasionally run out of electricity in the 21st century?

Come on, this is America and highly paid corporate executives should have seen the energy crisis coming. We're not living in a Third World country, are we?

For the most part, we're lucky. Back East, the heat delivers floods, tornadoes and hurricanes, stinging flies and swarms of mosquitoes.

We only have West Nile virus to worry about.