This is not a column about the debt ceiling crisis. If leadership in Washington allows this procedural formality to bring down the country, I will write a column on what we should do to them. Let us hope that column never sees the light of day.

It is “high season” in Maine, a time when those of us who struggled through another winter and wet spring can now luxuriate in the glories of Maine at its best. We are not going to let something like a debt ceiling crisis rain on our parade.

However, as I write this, the glory of High Season has been dented by an oppressive heat wave of the kind normally reserved for places like Washington, D.C.

I returned to Maine at mid-week to find my wife had set up beds in our basement. This turned out to be a terrific idea. Hopefully, the weather gods will have smiled on us and normalcy will have returned by the time you read this.

Before all of the heat set in, Sally and I had been to one of our summer rituals — a friend’s annual blueberry picking party. Our friend has a farm in the hills on the west side of Sebago Lake filled with low-bush blueberries.

I was worried that the wet spring had delayed the berries much as it has summer corn. Not so.

The blueberries were prime for picking, and pick them we did — more than two quarts’ worth, even allowing for many that were picked but never quite made it to the basket.

Blueberries are just one of many things we enjoy about summer in Maine. I am sure you have your own list, but here are a few special to us:

• Old friends from other places seem to turn up pretty regularly: Just last week, I had a call from a Naval Academy classmate who is cruising the Maine coast on his 42-foot powerboat called the Mach Turtle. (This fellow had been a Navy pilot, needless to say).

He wanted to get my recommendations for those places on the coast he and his wife should visit. We are going to set up a rendezvous, and he has promised me a turn at the helm of the Mach Turtle.

• Grilling out goes from the occasional to the regular: There is something delightful about being able to step outside on the patio and get the evening’s offering sizzling away. This gives me a role I seldom take the rest of the year. I find it most rewarding.

• Summer’s biggest delight, ice cream: Sally and I often set out after dinner for Toot’s in North Yarmouth or Classic Custard in Freeport for a cone. Both of these are seasonal places whose openings we track. In fact, we are often the very last customers of the season at Classic Custard when we stock up on quarts for the winter.

• The boys of summer, the Boston Red Sox: The Red Sox are part of most of our summer evenings. We like both the TV and radio announcing teams, but our favorites are the radio boys — Joe Castiglione and Dave O’Brien.

Joe and Dave seem like old friends. We love their down-home style — who doesn’t love Joe’s trademark “Would you believe it!”? They love the Sox, but they will point out, gently, a weakness or a disturbing tendency. They were the first to say that Adrian Gonzalez looked like he had a “tired bat” after the All-Star break.

On the TV side, Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy have nice, if sometimes wacky, chemistry. Don is excellent with play by play, but Jerry, bless his heart, doesn’t add much.

For all of these reasons and more, we cherish summertime in Maine. Because it is relatively short, I am always a little surprised when it is here.

One week, usually in early June, it is rainy and miserable. Then, the next week, the sun is out, and out it stays. Then before you know it, August is here. Much as I love August, I can’t help but notice that the evenings are getting shorter. Those long summer evenings are the magical part of summer. I hate to see them slip inexorably away.

I know they will be back, but I also know all that will come before we see those warm, slanted rays again.

But wait, summer has really just begun. Let us all savor it for as long as it lasts.

And stock up on that ice cream while we can.

Ron Bancroft is an independent strategy consultant based in Portland. He can be contacted at:

ron@bancroftandcompany.com