This Too Shall Pass

The weather alert came across on my Smartphone: "Heat advisory from Virginia to Texas." Really? This alert needed to remind me of something so painfully obvious? So here we are in midst of the intense summer heat. The sun is baking our roofs. The AC units are buzzing in overdrive. And too many of us are hibernating inside. It is one thing that we have had more 90 degrees days since May than items in a hoarder’s house, but 100 degrees in the shade? That is a sick joke.

I’ve been through well over 20 of these hot summers and I still confess that it’s all not that bad. Yes, incredibly hot weather that taxes our air conditioning systems is our worst, most oppressive weather, but to me, it’s better than long winters. I lived through more than 20 winters filled with mounds of snow that seemed like they would never melt. I still don’t miss snow-covered ground for months on end. I don’t miss encasing myself in jackets, gloves and ear muffs.  I don’t miss attempting to drive in white-outs at night.  And I certainly don’t miss shoveling snow and ice off of my driveway. Indeed, I got a good taste of that during January’s snowstorm, which did not seem that long ago. With northern Ohio’s worst weather, you have physical obstacles and major annoyances. With northern Georgia’s worst weather, you don’t have those barriers.  You can simply get into your 200 degree car, hope that it starts and about 30 minutes later, the car AC might cool you down to a respectable 80 degrees.

It’s gotten so bad here that even the squirrels are retreating from the heat as I spied one sprawled out on my fence, looking quite defeated.  The acorns can wait for autumn, when these furry rodents get busy. I’m not seeing the neighborhood cats seeking their typical quiet respites under vehicles. They’re probably somewhere in my house purring away on an AC vent and I wouldn’t know it. Even the deer cannot take it any longer. I think they have had it by risking their lives by wandering straight into the paths of oncoming cars on Holcomb Bridge Road.

Sometimes we get lucky in these days of intense heat. Short spotty thunderstorms move through our neighborhoods briefly cooling us down for about five minutes before the humidity sets back in. We need the rain, but not the extreme lightning which seems to have gotten worse these days.

As the saying goes, "This too shall pass" – and I might add, perhaps by Halloween.