By Jamie Strickland
Am I the only one who’s not super thrilled about the beginning of summer?
It’s about to get hot. Real hot. And so, so humid. The kind of humid that makes it feel like I’m trying to breathe under water. No amount of shade makes a bit of difference when it comes to that humidity either, and you have to choke on hot air in the car for a solid few minutes before the blessed AC finally kicks in.
I can almost hear the screeching cicadas already.
I think there’s some cognitive dissonance between the idea of summer and the reality of it.
I love the sunshine, and I love the warmth and I love to be outside and in the woods and at the pool or next to any body of water. I love all the things that people say they love about summer. I just don’t love those things in the summer.
The real life, damp undergarments, chapstick melted in the car again, too hot for the dog’s paws on the road, summer.
The time frame when it’s actually comfortable outside is rapidly coming to an end. It’s about to get real swampy around here and I’m about to be running from AC to AC for the next few months.
I’ll miss you, Spring, and I’m very much longing for you already, October.
I do have a trip coming up at the end of the summer, in August, right amidst the dog days, and it’s to a nice cool location. I’m already dreaming of the reprieve from that oppressive heat and it hasn’t even settled in for the season yet. Hopefully it won’t be too cold there at that time of year, or I’ll be kicking myself, because I surely don’t like to freeze either.
Can I just get a nice, consistent 70 and sunny, pretty please? And don’t say “Sure, move to California” cause that’s not happening either. People are sort of flocking away from there right now, rather than moving towards it, so I guess the nice weather isn’t the only factor. Plus, I like for the ocean to be on the right (as in correct) side of me. It’s a bit disorienting over there on the West Coast, having the ocean on the wrong side, no? It seems that my natural sense of direction depends on it. My inclination is to figure out which way is East or West based on where the coastline is, and I get thrown off over there on the Pacific side of the country.
Anyway, I digress. I truly do love where I live. I love our beaches, I love our mountains, I even love most places in between. I’d just love it more if it were a bit less…sticky.
