“Hurry! Let’s go!”
I greet Gerry as I’m rushing around the kitchen getting a dish of chicken breasts ready to put in the oven.
“The sun is shining! Go up and get changed and let’s head outside!” I say as I maneuver around him to get to the oven.
I had been pleasantly surprised when I came out of my office after work and discovered the sun was shining and it was relatively warm outside. My anticipation increased as I walked across the parking lot and I felt the heat on my bare arms; visions of myself sitting on my patio popped into my head.
A co-worker called out from behind me. We stood and talked for, what couldn’t have been more than five minutes, but during those five minutes a little voice in my mind urged Let’s go before the sun disappears! You’re wasting precious time standing here talking. I extricated myself from the conversation as quickly as I could without appearing rude, climbed into my car (it was hot inside!) and headed home.
At home I took the girls out in the back yard right away and, as they did their business, I confirmed to myself that it was, indeed, warm enough to sit outside. There wasn’t a moment to lose! I dashed in the house and changed my clothes and pullled supper ingredients from the fridge so I could get them in the oven and free myself to go outside into the sunshine.
Now, chicken in the oven, I race around the house gathering up reading glasses, books, and magazines as I shout upstairs where Gerry has gone to change clothes “Come on! Let’s go!”
You see while much of the country has been suffering through a relentless heat wave, here in the Pacific Northwest we’re still waiting for summer to arrive. According to the local weather guru, we have hit 80 degrees or higher for a scant 78 minutes so far this year. And sunshine? There hasn’t been much of that around either. It’s been cool AND cloudy for, what seems like, forever. When the sun does shine and the thermometer climbs the slightest bit, Gerry and I are outside in the yard; the weather is completely controlling our lives these days.
I feel bad for those who are enduring drought and sizzling temperatures.
I also feel bad for those of us here in the Pacific Northwest for whom 2011 is rapidly turning into the year when summer passed us by.
The winner of the draw for Tracy Seeley’s book My Ruby Slippers is Susan Ideus. Congratulations, Susan!
Hello Linda,
I’ve concluded that there’s no way the weather ever truly pleases us. Here in the Mid-West, the days are “hot,” “hotter,” and I suspect we haven’t reached “hottest” yet. Your days continue to be cool. I sometimes wonder where in life is the happy medium. Maybe in Dorothy’s tornado! Or the land of Oz. I’d like to find it within myself.
May you know summer this year! Peace
Linda, I remember living in Portland OR and waiting for summer. But that is so unusual to still have the clouds in July. We used to at least have July, August and Sept with the sun shining.
Karen
Oh Linda, I hear about this every day from my daughter. She gets excited when it hits 70–ugh–come visit me when the cold gets to be too much.
Linda, I’m sorry there have been so few summer days. I love the warmer weather, but this year has been a bit crazy. Hope you were filled with warm sunshine.
I hate to admit that I don’t mind this temperature and weather, except that I could do with a little less rain when I’m on one of my hikes. Even then, when I compare what it is like right now in the Midwest, I’ll take it. I could not hike without endangering my life in those parts, and here… and we will have summer, won’t we? 🙂
I kept reading, hoping you weren’t going to say that by the time you got out there, the sun was gone! I live in the PNW too but we are scortching. I’m guessing you are on the other side of the mountains or the beach. It is a bit milder than usual, but plenty warm. I’m glad you made it out to the sunshine! ~Karen
Only 78 minutes? That’s unbelievable!
We are looking forward to a weekend in the 80s! Hurray!
@Terri – would that I could, my friend!
@Dee – thank you for stopping by!
@Karen – yes we’re on the other side – the horrible-weather side!
oh you poor thing….I would never last there….we complain alot about the heat here in Texas….but I love it….