Saturday, August 20, 2011

A Long Time Commin'

As anyone in the northwest knows, our winter and spring SUCKED! There is no other way to put it. It rained for 6 months right on into JULY. No joke…..July. It was so awful and horribly depressing to many of us, me included. It was so bad that the parks department cancelled spring soccer and that has NEVER happened before. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I went to California for about 10 days in June and spent time in the sun. After about the 3rd day I started feeling better….dramatically better. It was the natural vitamin D. It had to be. After that trip we chased the sun for almost a month getting home around July 14th. It was still winter in Portland. I caught a lot of flak for being gone during what often is “the nicest time of year in Portland.” I am glad we did what we did. I don’t think I could have taken much more rain.

As a caveat, I know there were devastating tornados and floods in the south and stifling heat for most of the country. I am not saying that what we suffered was worse or even comparable; it just messes with one’s psyche. I pray that those who lost their homes will find adequate shelter and peace. And those that have been in the 100’s forever will find relief. That is awful too.

Since mid July it’s been pretty nice off and on until about 3 weeks ago. There are some strange things blooming around here. My clematis that blooms in March has flowers on it. The blackberries are still on the vine. Strawberries were more than 3 weeks late etc. It was nuts. The past couple weeks have been in the mid 70’s which I consider to be perfect. I have been happy with that.

Today it’s 94. For those of us that aren’t used to the heat it feels pretty hot. I am grateful for my AC. I am not complaining about the heat just saying it is fairly warm. It’s supposed to be hot tomorrow too. We have the pool across the street so the kids are pretty happy with that. And the ultimate summer treat around here SNO CONES! They are really quite good.

So let it be known that I am NOT complaining about the heat. I promised I wouldn’t if it ever got hot. I am fine with it. We’ll swim, have sno cones, turn on the AC and enjoy the fact that summer finally arrived. It was a long time commin’ and we deserve a bit ‘o heat.