Sorry to play the summer party-pooper

Some like it hot.

If you’re one of them, you must be rejoicing at the heat wave baking North Idaho.

Well, make like a lizard and bask. More power to you. The rest of us will be taking solace — and a sip of something ice-cold — in friendly shade or air-conditioned comfort.

For all of us, though, we should not take these blue skies for granted. They will not last, and we aren’t talking about the eventual encroachment of Old Man Winter.

Our region has five distinct seasons, don’t you know. Spring. Summer. Smoke. Fall. Winter.

That middle one’s the real bugger.

And with fire warnings now at their highest level short of “inferno,” the prospect of ongoing smoke-choked skies is as certain as babies being born buck-nekked. In fact, Saturday's smoke screen was a real preview of what's to come, reflected in a rather unhappy air quality index. The haze these days? Mere flurries compared to the blizzard that awaits.

We apologize profusely for playing the role of midsummer party spoil sport, but there’s a reason. As already stated, a note to the uninitiated to enjoy each daily kiss from sol while you can, but further, to ask you to be extra vigilant in not giving smoke season any extra airborne fodder.

No cigarette butts out the car window.

No burning stuff in the back yard.

No leftover fireworks — please!

No campfires unless clearly OK’d, and even then, tend them closely and put them dead out.

With these admonitions we also reluctantly pass along one more apology, knowing it will add insult to injuries that still have not healed.

Those masks you’ve finally been given the “all clear” signal from the CDC to stuff away in a bottom drawer somewhere? Might want to keep that drawer ajar.