“I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.”
This morning was one of those mirror under the nose mornings. The last few days caught up with me. I woke up a few times during the night trying to find a spot for comfort in bed, but both dogs were deep asleep and had all the room. They didn’t budge. I did.
Last night we had thunder and lightning followed by heavy rain. The thunder was right over the house. The dogs sat up quickly and looked nervously around especially toward the ceiling. I put one arm around each of them, and they were fine.
I swear there was sun when I woke up, but it is cloudy and dark now though no rain is predicted. It is warm at 70°. I’ll be at home again today.
The dogs are okay. Nala is better at navigating. She has figured out how to go through tight spaces. Henry is just Henry.
When I was a kid, school around now was close to ending. We could barely contain ourselves. Time passed slowly. We didn’t do much in class, just took a few end of the year exams. I remember the music exam with a part of it about Gregorian chant. Yup, Gregorian chant!
The library and the post office were the coolest places in town during the summer. They were also the quietest. In the post office, people almost whispered as if afraid to break the silence. The clerk was behind an arched window. The floor was tiled and heels made noise. The library was usually quiet. The whirr of a fan was the only constant sound. The librarians whispered and spoke only at checkout. I used to like to sit at one of the wooden tables and read a bit before I rode home on my bike.
Summer was always filled with possibilities. I could walk to the pool and spend the day swimming just for the cost of a dime. At the end of my street was the field with the playground in one corner. I could take early morning tennis lessons, play softball and horseshoes. I could do crafts for the cost of materials. Everything else was free. I’d spend the morning, go home for lunch just up the hill then go back for the afternoon. I loved those days.
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June 15, 2023 at 10:31 pm
Hi Kat,
Not only has it been hot, it’s been stiflingly humid. The temperature only hit 93°with 90% humidity. The hot dry air will replace the humidity tomorrow and continue for the rest of next week. Tomorrow the predicted high will only reach 97°, but Sunday and every afternoon next week will hit triple digits. The summer of 1980 set a record for the most 100° days in a summer which was 42 and the hottest day ever recorded temperature was 113°. That was a summer from hell.
Now you understand why when I was a kid living in Dallas summer vacation began on Memorial Day. Now all the schools are air conditioned and we could have year round school. Now the school year is only 180 days.
When I was a kid here in Dallas the public pools would open over Memorial Day weekend and we would spend many days in the water. The rest of the time I spend a lot of time reading books in my room. Our house had central air conditioning and going outside to ride my bike or to play had to be started early in the day and end at lunchtime. Without air conditioning, the sun belt would have never grown into the mega cities stretching from Atlanta to Phoenix.
June 15, 2023 at 11:08 pm
Hi Bob,
Today Cape Cod was the place to be. It was peasant and dry. Our humidity doesn’t rear its ugly head until August which is our hottest month. Tomorrow will be hot, our hot, at 77°. The low will be 60°, perfect for sleeping. I hope this coming summer doesn’t break your record.
The school year here is in hours. It used to be 180 days. With hours, you can bank some should you want a special day, a non academic day. Most schools here are not air conditioned.
AC is now far more common than it used to be. When I was a kid, no one I knew had it in their houses. Movie theaters used to advertise it to draw customers. The afternoons would get hot but most times not unbearably.