Well, I hope all of you summer fans out there are happy.  It’s not even July yet and we’ve already hit the mid-90’s on several days here in June, the corn is already rolling up from heat stress, and as usual, there’s hardly a drop of rain in sight.  July and August haven’t even reared their ugly heads yet.

It’s shaping up to be a brutal summer.

Welcome to the new normal.

This past week, the thermometer touched 95 degrees in Maine.  In Maine.  My youngest daughter (who’s living in Central Florida) kvetchs to me on a regular basis about the heat and humidity she is experiencing on a daily basis down in the “Sunshine State”.  I remember those days when I lived down there.  You couldn’t even walk outside to get your mail from the mailbox without coming back in with your shirt stuck to you from sweat.  You could cut the humidity in the heavy air with a knife, and its god-awful living for anything outside from March to mid-November.

But I digress.

I thought those days of sweltering heat and raging humidity were long behind me, but perhaps I was wrong.  It seems to have followed me northward.  The lawn crinkles like straw, the blacktop is deadly to bare feet (and my flip-flops), and if you don’t have any A/C in the car (like my beloved 20+ year old Camry, Stan, whose cabin comforts gave up the ghost over a decade ago), you might as well bring along a change of clothes and a towel to your destination, because you’re going to be soaked with that wonderfully sticky, aromatic, and sweaty skin for the rest of the day.  Sounds like paradise, right?

So, turn on the fans, keep the blinds closed, and stay hydrated.  If you have to be outside, get your chores done in the early AM, if you can (for goodness sake, the sun is up before 6:00AM these days).  Make sure to water those garden plants, or your tomatoes will be cracking like the San Andreas fault line.

Finally, to all of you folks who happily say “I love the heat”, you’re gonna get everything you want this summer.  Trouble is, are you gonna want everything you’re gonna get.

Stay cool, friends.