Semantics necessitates 6 seasons

Welcome to the dog days – where it’s a steamy 95 degrees and raining outside and the water evaporates in a foggy mist as soon as it hits the pavement because the sun is still stubbornly shining through the rain streaming down. That kind of hot.

The kind of hot that makes you sweat at 7 in the morning. The kind of hot that burns your hands on the steering wheel. Melts your favorite lipgloss. Runs your AC into the ground.

Don’t even think about rinsing beach sand off your heels with the water hose that’s been curled up like a snake in the sun all day. You only do that once in life. You never ever ever in a million years do it again.

And that would be beach sand from your sunset walk. Only the masochists go to the beach between 9am and 6pm.

But then there are the runners. The runners defy they laws of dehydration. They’re out all the time. And they’re superhuman. I always expect to see one fall down and die right there on the side of the road. But it’s never been documented. Like I said, they’re superhuman.

The best word we have for this is summer. But the word “summer” has a different meaning here than in other parts of the world, like – oh – say – New England, where “summer” may still include frost on the ground.

So. The way I see it, we should rephrase things based on the academics that live in New England.

They call the weather between June and September “summer” – so a southern winter should be called “summer” – since the weather is about the same.

And I’m guessing we can call this southern occurrence between June and September “Hell”…

AND, I’m thinking we can call the northern experience between December and March “Hell, frozen over.”

Just sayin’

So… How many seasons exist where you are?

Do you want to know…?

Do you want to know that I’ve submersed myself in reading/learning/practicing songwriting over the past 4 months? That I’ve read three different books on songwriting and have subscribed to a half-dozen blogs by the pros in the field?

Do you want to know that my husband will be attending graduation this weekend, to receive a diploma for a degree that he finished 5 months ago, and is currently chipping away at a second degree that he won’t complete for another 6 months? So, this weekend, we’re celebrating something he did last year, and not in any way finding closure in the ritual because our lives aren’t really changing much right now…

Do you want to know where we’re going to go after seminary? (You do? Me too! I’ll tell ya when we figure it out.)

Do you want to know that I’ve never found flowers to be so beautiful as in the past few weeks, after having spent a winter with 3 months of snow on the ground?

Do you want to know that I’d give just about anything (within reason) to have Patty Griffin’s songwriting abilities?

What else do you want to know?

photo: an easter snow bunny…

as requested, here’s my easter outfit photo! yes – i wore the mint sweater and brown slacks that y’all nearly unanimously agreed on – but THIS is a memory:

don’t you think that snow bunnies are MUCH “cooler” than the Easter Bunny?

i thought about editing and lightening the pic so you might actually be able to see me, but decided the pre-dawn feeling was more important.

sunrise service: 6:00 am – 6:30 am…

temperature: 25ish degrees

wind chill: deathly - note the windblown fur and scarf.

ground: FROZEN

photo taken: 6:30 am…

actual sunrise: 6:50 am…

yeah. we were too early for the sunrise, but way TOO cold to wait for it. OH WELL!!!