The heat is taxing. One hundred and something every single day. All the days prior and all the days into the foreseeable future. No rain. No relief. No ninety degree something. Just open your front door and walk out into the oven.
My spirit is sucked dry. My usual enthusiasm, and spring in my step has turned into a forced zombie-like march toward black asphalt parking lots and concrete driveways. Even sitting in the pickup line last week, a/c blowing full blast, left me with a bit of anxiety as I realized my water bottle was running low and the line hadn’t even begun to move yet.
I’m hot and cranky and I’m not okay.
Summer was fun but we’re ready for it to move on. We’ve swam every single weekend since Memorial Day and there are no more actives left for us to uncover. Slime, play-dough, forts, kinetic sand, water – sprinkler fun and puzzles. We are done.
Movies it is… Screens for everyone. You don’t like this movie? Sure, get on the iPad.
The heat has zapped my soul. I’m slow. I’m tired. I just need cold a/c and an iced beverage please.
While it seems like it’s been this way far too long, we know it’ll all soon be behind us. The scorched trees dropping leaves now- due to drought- will be covered in ice and snow. The recent years extreme weather taking a toll not only on our mental health, but the world around us as well.
Lakes, trees, bees, hummingbirds – We all miss the rain. The breeze the “normal” warm summer temperatures where we could still go outside for a walk at sunset.
My backyard is covered in sand and dirt- and so are the floors of my home. In early summer our yard was torn up from major septic system work- and it has not been able to recover. Dirt has turned to dust and sand, the rest of the backyard is sprinkled with crunchy, crispy grass.
The front yard is holding it’s own. I water my flowers daily, the only thing in a mile radius that’s blooming in this heat are my Zennias which I refuse to give up on because they bring so many butterflies to our yard. My evening water adventures allow me to pause.
This summer I’ve seen praying mantis multiple times, and more geckos and lizards than I can count. The honey bees, bumble bees and butterflies swarm my blue vitex and I feel like I’m contributing just a little. My hostas are happy. My foxtail fern thriving. But I am thinking that the extreme -15 degree swing to 110 degree summer has left my boxwood with nothing left to do but turn to crispy brown sticks.
We may be ready to move on, for summer to draw to a close. But summer is standing her ground.