The "Dog Days of Summer."

Posted at 4:01 PM, Jun. 26, 2008

 Some people say that Real Estate is a "dog eat dog" world. That's just the nature of the beast. You are not seeing a picture of a couple of real estate agents arguing over a commission. They can't be Realtors because neither one of them has their license yet!

Didn't take me long to sneak in one of those puppy pictures did it? What you're seeing is a couple of three and a half week old Bull Terriers: two of five girls to whom our little Show Queen Martina gave birth. Their eyes have only been open  a few days. They eat a lot, and it looks like they are getting hungry again.

I was going to launch RealtyIntuition's  post-intro post with a serious look at what the real estate market is doing right now, at least in the Phoenix region. We have to establish today's reality before we can hope to make projections about the future. I have some charts that depict that reality beyond refute. We'll see them soon enough.Today however, I decided to forsake "serious" for "Sirius," which leads us right into the Dog Days of Summer. We'll be there real soon; July 3rd through August 11th, according to tradition.

But wait. Let's just take a moment to savor the very beginning of Summer. It is kind of a magical time when students are finished with tests, and even those in the middle of a hard core career entertain visions of vacation getaways to places that are cool, fun and/or restful. Enjoy that feeling and make it your reality. All that other stuff will be back...soon enough.

So what does "the dog days of summer" mean? One connotation is a "period of inactivity." Fittingly, this coincides with the hot sultry weather occuring between early July and mid to late August. Historically, this term also alludes to Sirius, known as the "big dog" star in the Canis Major constellation. Sirius happens to be the brightest star in the night sky: so bright in fact, that the ancient Romans thought the earth received heat from it. During summer in the northern hemisphere, Sirius pretty much rises and sets along with the sun, which the Romans incorrectly thought made those days even hotter.

My favorite literary reference occurs in the short story "The Bar Sinister" by Richard Harding Davis. The main character just happens to be a Bull Terrier forced by circumstances to spend some time on the street. He exclaims (with a British accent,) "when the hot days come,I think they might remember that those are the dog days, and leave a little water outside in a trough, like they do for the horses." I know you will do much better than that for your dogs.

Some ancients believed the dog days to be a turbulent time, "when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad,,...causing to man fevers hysterics and phrensies." -Brady's Clavis Calenderium. That may describe what comes somewhat later this year.....to be discussed soon enough.

Do you think I should make a last ditch effort to wrap this up with some kind of reference to the economy? OK, here we go.

"My dog is worried about the economy because Alpo is up to 99 cents a can. That's almost $7.00 in dog money!" ~ Joe Weinstein.

(Photo credits to Duff Harris. He and his wife Susie co-own Martina along with my wife Karen and me.)