I was driving west on Greenfield Avenue thanks to the clever highway repairmen who had thoughtfully blocked the westbound entrance ramp to I94 at Hwy 100, when I passed Immaculate Heart of Mary (IMH) Catholic Church. They had a sign out to advertise their church festival May 26-28. Church festival time to me is Summer in Wisconsin. It is how I spend my weekends until fall.

The festival season has a rhythm. It starts small and cold at St. Florian's in West Milwaukee within spitting distance of Miller Park. It has the appearance of a parish you'd find in any Rustbelt city. You can imagine yourself in 1950's Brooklyn here. Robert De Niro's your parish priest.

It is good to be under a tent again listening to band trying to play their guitars with gloves on. The drink in the plastic cup you're holding gets colder the longer you hold it. You have your first brat or ear of corn of the season. You go into the gym to get warm and maybe play one of the gambling games. You can only put up with the cold for two sets of the band and you don't go back the next day because it's just too friggin cold, but the season has begun.

Memorial Day weekend belongs to IMH and Dan Jansen (remember him?) and it always rains. It really gets going in June, St. Roman's in South Milwaukee, St. Aloysius and Mary Help of Christians in West Allis. You find yourself at places with names you can't shorten, like Our Lady Queen of Peace or have to explain like Three Holy Women. Then the season pauses because of Summerfest. It used to be because Summerfest sucked up all the local talent, but that's no longer the case. I think it's because it's hard to get the necessary volunteers in July to put on a good festival. Nobody wants to work when you only get one July per year. But there's always county fairs, firemen's festivals and the Fourth of July to get you through the month.

In August and September you get the biggest festivals including St. Sava at Serb Hall and the ultimate, St. Gregory the Great. There's a couple in September, but they're small and it's raining and it's cold. You realize you've made the full circle.

Ancient man counted the days of the year in his way and we in ours. He celebrated the days getting longer on the winter solstice. He welcomed the winter because it would end. "Bon hiver", he said, "Bon hiver." We called it Christmas. He celebrated the rebirth of the growing season on the Vernal equinox and we called it Easter. He called the summer solstice "Midsummer" and it made him as wistful as it does me today. He did not celebrate the autumnal equinox because it meant the coming of the cold. We do not celebrate it today because the Packers suck.

So it's cold. So it's raining. Get your butt off the couch and get out there. Make this a summer to remember. It doesn't matter what you do while you're out there, just get out there. From now until Halloween, days are too short if you spend them sleeping. The winters are too long and too drizzly and too gray even when they're easy. Go to bed late and get up with the sun. You'll thank me in November.