rainy countdown

We broke a record high yesterday--63 degrees. Snow is melting and dripping, but it's hard to distinguish between the snow melt and the actual rain that's falling. Our little pond in the back yard is getting high, and hubbie heads down to the basement now and then to check on the water seepage problem. Tonight we're in for another weather change--temps will drop, the rain will change to snow, and it's back to winter again in West Michigan.

It doesn't depress me quite as much as it once did. Now that I've finally accepted that I can't go home again, at least not to what I want home to be, I seem to have come to terms with Michigan weather. As much as I hate driving in snow and ice, as much as I hate walking in snow and ice, risking painful falls, I find that because I am by nature an indoor person, with indoor hobbies and interests, I don't miss the outdoors as much as I thought I did. After all, in both Louisiana and Georgia, the heat, humidity, and bugs made summer a time to avoid the outdoors. I like looking at green trees, flowers, children playing in sprinklers, and all those cliched idyllic summer scenes, but I'm not going to be out there mowing a lawn, pulling weeds, and snipping roses. Instead, as a Southern resident, I observed the outdoors from a nicely air-conditioned spot indoors. At least here in Michigan, summer is a wonderful time to be outside. No bugs to speak of. Just wonderful temperatures--hot enough during the day to need air conditioning, often cool enough at night to need only the windows open or an attic fan humming. And I still don't need to be doing lawn care, as long as esteemed spouse is healthy enough to do it. (The day he gets where he can't, that's the day we get one of those high-rise condos overlooking the river.)

The unusual band of heat across the country has sparked a rash of tornadoes. There, I said it, just like the weather forecasters do, cliches and all. Heat causes tornadoes. Heat causes hurricanes. Heat causes drought. It's working! I can feel it! I'm learning to love cold! (And if you believe all that, then you might like to take a look at this nice bit of swamp land I have for sale....)

One week till classes begin. I guess I'd better get started doing some class prep. Before that, though, I MUST clean up my home office. Imagine that a paper shredder exploded. That's my current decor. And I hemmed only two pairs of pants yesterday, with four or five to go. Busy, busy, busy. Idle minds are the devil's workshop, you know. Dr. S.