It comes in many forms

Let’s talk about the weather

Armerina

Armerina (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


Summer is here and I still have a pair of sweat pants and a sweat shirt wrapped around the chair where I dress each day. As we go through the changes that spring brings about we know we’ll occasionally still have need for those things that warmed us during winter’s chill.
Over time we abandon the material things that climate changes previously had dictated necessary in our lives. We move permanently to Florida for instance in order to avoid the snow and cold. But not living in a place that enjoys the changes of four seasons can leave us like lizards—we come out to sun, feed and drink and then we go home. Still, we are able to get rid of our bulky sweaters, coats and snow boots when we move full-time to places that only know warmth.
Being outdoors when it is cold goes against our bodies’ grains. This is good for our immune systems, I suppose. But pale skin always looks less healthy compared to the bronzed epidermis that someone from the Keys might blow into town with.
English: Bikini girls at the Boryeong Mud Fest...

English: Bikini girls at the Boryeong Mud Festival 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


Summer gets here full time and we are soon into shorts and skirts season. This is actually quite good for our vision as our eyes get all this additional exercise looking at people who are no longer wearing the bulky attire of someone who winters in Chicago. But with all this newfound skin also comes the perspiration that goes along with it.
It is quite warm during the summer. I drove a Toyota Corolla that didn’t have air conditioning for over 20 years and somehow always got by. But it started to feel really hot towards the end of its run. Maybe it was because I was getting older. But I think it had more to do with the fact that it was just getting hotter during the summer. That, and I wasn’t moving as often as I used to. I wasn’t able to enjoy the breezes that the windows being down afforded. I found myself sitting in traffic more often as the number of vehicles on the road expanded, contributing to congestion and heat.
English: 100 % humidity in Dartmoor

English: 100 % humidity in Dartmoor (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


I’ve reacquainted myself with humidity. It’s the mugginess and closeness that makes it feel so hot. People plan their days around it so they can avoid it when it’s at its peak. They do the yard work in the evenings or mornings. In the afternoons they find respite from the heat again, turning to the cool confines of their air conditioned homes.
Summer and winter are the extreme seasons. Ironically enough, they share the commonality of people spending a good deal of time indoors during the heart of the season. People go indoors during winter after doing things like shoveling the walk or clearing off their vehicles. People go indoors during summer after cutting their lawn and working in their gardens.
Since most of us work indoors, air conditioning is a must in the summer. We are at our computers much of the day and poorly ventilated office spaces sap both humans and the technology they utilize. Sometimes we do things like wear scarfs with cooling stuff inside them around our necks. But to me this goes against the whole generally agreed upon truth that summer dictates our wearing loss clothing; adding a scarf that purports to keep us from getting hot around the collar is not consistent with that idea. But you can only take off so much clothing before getting written up or worse.
The night sky had a strange pink tint to it gi...

The night sky had a strange pink tint to it giving this long exposure some nice tones. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


So the Fourth of July is now on the horizon since summer is officially here. After the Fourth, the summer seems to fly by. We tell acquaintances we’ll get together one weekend soon. Then it’s August and we’ve successfully remained cool most of the summer so far, but we feel it slipping away. We realize the kids are back in school and we look to fall’s promise of cooler nights. We make a trip to the basement and look at our winter parkas.
Then we go upstairs and look for a fresh pair of shorts and a t-shirt to throw on. We see the suddenly not so distant memory of winter in the sweat shirt and sweat pants hanging across the chair. We sigh, hide them with yesterday’s summer clothes and go back downstairs to read the paper on the patio with our morning coffee.
Since mornings are the treat of the day during the summer, I suggest you do the same. But try your coffee black. It’ll put a whole new perspective on the day, not to mention brace you for that slight chill in the air that serves as a reminder that even though summer’s just begun, you’ll be wearing layers again before you know it.

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6 Comments

  1. I love this weather story! It is so appropriate for the first weekend of summer!
    Danny and I go back and forth to the mountains all summer so I keep those sweat pants close by.
    How did we spend the first day of summer? SKIING!
    By the way, I LOVE my coffee black!
    Thanks for bringing this to the party! Have fun clicking on links and meeting the other Wild Riders. Tell them “Susie sent me,” and they should click back here.
    (I did have a problem figuring out where to comment. I clicked on the comic bubble with the plus sign, but I’m not sure everyone will be able to find it.)

    • I love that you loved it, Susie! You do such a supportive thing for the blogging community by hosting the parties you do. I just posted this today, have visited other bloggers’ links from the party and did relate that I had found them because of you. I agree finding the comments section here may be a bit tricky, but where there’s a will, there’s a way! So glad you persevered! I remember taking people from out of town to Estes Park so they could experience snow in July atop Trail Ridge Road. So, yes, in some places, you still need your long sleeves during summer. Very cool (literally) that you and Danny were skiing! Thanks again for stopping here!

  2. Wonderful read! I can relate to all of it. Especially telling acquaintances that you will get together soon and suddenly the summer is over and the get-together never occurred. I plan on enjoying every single second of this summer, particularly after the winter we had. I love the fact that everyone is in a much better mood and friendly. I also look forward to sitting in my back porch enjoying a cool and refreshing glass (or two) of Sangria. Yum! Nice chatting with you at Susie’s party! 🙂

  3. Still wearing layers. Apparently New England did something to forfeit summer this year.
    However, I will tell you that while adding clothes when the weather gets hotter may SEEM counterintuitive, it can work if it’s the right fabric. I worked for 9 months at a living history museum (time period: early 1800’s). Most of those 9 months occurred in the summer. (I was mostly in grad school in the colder periods.) It got REALLY HOT in those long-sleeved cotton dresses with petticoats and aprons, but “village” lore which was repeated over and over to visitors to the museum was that we were actually cooler than they, in their shorts and tank tops, were, because we had layers of protection against the direct heat. As the summers wore on, I became more and more convinced we were lying to everyone.
    Then I got another job. My last day as an employee of the museum was a really hot, sunny day in August. The next day, which was sporting the exact same weather, I dressed in modern-day shorts and tank top myself, brought back my cleaned costumes and walked around the “village” one more time. I was probably 80 times hotter than I had been in the same temperatures but much more clothing the day before.
    This still doesn’t mean I dress in 1830’s garb when it gets really hot. But I can attest that less clothing really isn’t, in fact, always cooler. 🙂

  4. Susie sent me over for this terrific blog. Here in Scotland, we’re just approaching warmer weather. I hope. (One day made it to 70-degrees. My neighbors say they are glad I was here for that day we had summer…)

  5. Weather is so subjective for each of us. I prefer the heat and humidity. For some reason it energizes me and I get so much more done when I’m not worried about keeping my neck warm and my shoulders aren’t automatically in the “upright and around my ears” position> *grin*
    I’ve been trying to convince my Mister that we should move to a tropical island somewhere but so far, no sale. We may have to evolve our relationship into a “long distance” love affair.
    Not to say I hate the cold. I do dislike it intensely. And I do like snow. If it was possible to have lovely white drifts of snow without the cold, I’d so be there. Maybe. Hmmm.
    Nice post. Susie (Blog Pimp) sent me over.

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