Summer Goes on Vacation

 

by Pa Rock

Observer of Nature

Summer has come and gone a couple of times already this year in the Ozarks. There have been a few odd occurrences when the temperature reached into the nineties and brought along humidity that felt like it had come from Equatorial Africa, but those instances have seemed to last no more than three or four days before nicer weather swoops in and blows the heat away.  In general terms this is the nicest summer that I have experienced in the ten years that I have been back in the Ozarks.

What's going on?  As the rest of the world bounces around in the tumbler of climate change, did I get lucky for once in my life and settle on an oddball sliver of the planet where the climate is actually getting better?  I don't understand what's happening, but I'll take it!

The sky is blue outside of window where I sit typing this blog.  There are a very few clouds floating by and the sun is shining, but it is not July hot.   The temperature right now is in the high sixties and the predicted high for today is 81 degrees F.  The birdbath is full and it has been days since I've added any water to it.  There is a squirrel scampering through the thick green grass, roses are blooming in the front and back yards, the surprise lilies are up, the sunflowers are at about three feet and adding inches every day, and I can see a large zucchini squash in a flower pot that needs to be harvested.

It's a beautiful day - and it feels more like April than July.  I haven't heard the air-conditioner kick on once today.

Summer will return, I know that.  It has been here several times already.  But today is not summer, today is something else.  And every day that we have like today is one less day of trudging through the stifling heat of summer.

Summer seems to have taken a break.  Perhaps it has gone on vacation.

Thunderstorms are predicted for tomorrow with a high of 77 degrees F.

Do my friends in Phoenix know they have options?  They don't have to live in an oven just above the main furnace of hell.  They can always invest in a lawnmower and join me in the beautiful green Ozarks!