Heat Wave

We’re right in the middle of an early summer heat wave, or more specifically, sauna like weather.  It is so humid out that breathing is difficult, and the lows at night are somewhere around 70 with highs hovering around 90.  I know for some of you this is weather you may be used to, but here in my corner of New Jersey we can usually count on the nighttime low being in the mid to low 60’s, and the kind of weather we’ve been having generally only lasts 2-3 days, but we are approaching 2 weeks and no signs of change on the horizon if the weather people are right.   As I was driving to a family celebration the other afternoon I passed a woman jogging along the county road on which I travelled.  As the air conditioning was blasting in my car I wondered who in their right mind would be out running in these conditions.  Upon further consideration I remembered that as a child I was out running around every day in the summer heat whether playing Frisbee or baseball with my brothers, chasing butterflies by myself, or tag with friends, heat and humidity were no obstacles.  Now I’m such a wimp that I won’t even go for a walk in the morning if it’s too humid.  We were also outside after dark.  If we weren’t playing hide and seek, we were sitting on the porch as a family drinking lemonade and just talking—it was too hot in the house and we’d sit outside until bed time in the summer.  Now we have central air and I can’t help but feel that I am somehow wasting the summer away waiting for it to be comfortable outside.  I think I have this argument with myself every summer now, whether to go outside and enjoy the sights and sounds of summer or stay inside where the air is more comfortable and forget what season it is.  I really think I should go outside, at least until I start to sweat and truly feel that it’s summer.