Operation Rolling Summer ...

Dear America: Are you as psyched as I am for Summer 2009?

If not, you should be, because this is the summer of cheap cars and cheap destinations and gas that shouldn't be much over $3.50 a gallon, according to a Saudi oil minister I don't know.

It's also the summer of smart phones -- BlackBerries and Apples that put everything you haven't been able to leave town without in one palm-sized handset that connects practically anywhere so long as you're not using AT&T.

This means that for the first time in the two decades we've been enslaved by personal computers, we Americans can leave home and go somewhere else on the cheap without nagging questions about how we're going to access our e-mail, office network, and E*Trade accounts. It means that we don't have to take time off during a time when no one has time to take time off ... and that we can do it in deeply-discounted new automobiles that reliably take us to deeply-discounted resorts and four-star hotels.

Summer 09 means a new era of Time Away ... which isn't "away" so much as it's Time Somewhere Else ... which isn't so much "somewhere else" as simply time spent in a better place for us to do what we do best.

(I had a staffer read the above paragraph for clarity and purpose and am happy to say it checked out fine).

This may be the summer of No Time Off Work, but if you're lucky enough not to be stuck mowing lawns for a living you can probably leave town without getting the least bit behind in your work.

Just the other day I was out playing nine at an exclusive country club (exclusive country clubs let anybody in these days, and you can usually use your frequent flyer miles or Domino's Pizza coupons for greens fee discounts) when I noticed one guy in the foursome ahead of us taking a Burger King drive-through window order on his iPhone.

If that guy can get out of the dumps (Philly I'm guessing -- since he said, "Welcome ta Buhga King," just like a drive-through guy in Philly would) and still work his way through this whole economic malaise, I'll bet you can too.

Remember: cheap cars, cheap hotels, smart phones, and pink slips around every corner. Put it all together and you can work through the 2009's Summer of Somber in style, or at least someplace else.

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