Weather Change

I am sitting this morning on the screened porch enjoying the 63 degree temperature with rain falling to begin the gray cloud overcast day.

OK--I am not really enjoying it. I am a bit chilled after the 100 degree plus days of the recent weeks. We went to a local restaurant last evening for happy hour and dinner, choosing to sit outside, and by the time we left--it was down right chilly. I went into the air conditioned restaurant to warm up.

The rain is frustrating.

The motor on my pool pump burned out during the heat wave--a new one will not be here until Monday. That means I can't even lower the rising water level in my pool--which I suppose I should consider a blessing.

But we need the rain--I haven't mowed in three weeks and the lawn still looks good--except for the leaves which have fallen from the heat stressed sycamore and tulip poplar trees that surround my yard.

The birds are awake. I hear them in the trees, along with the sound of the rain falling on the leaves and the babbling of the over-filled stream that runs behind the house.

If this were September, I'd be ecstatic. But, alas, it is July--and worse, it is the dog days when the weather is supposed to be extra hot and sultry.

Makayla just began barking at a deer who happened to decide to cross the lawn. They are so quiet. And graceful. I am happy that we are within a fence so that Makayla can't chase after the deer. I do not enjoy cleaning her coat after she romps through the wooded area next to the house and crashes through the stream in a futile effort to run with so fleet a creature as a deer. Robert Frost wrote about good fences making good neighbors in Mending Wall. They are also good for keeping dogs within their boundaries.

I suppose that I will not be working on the still unfinished stairs to my deck today. They are so close to completion--too close it seems. Just a few hours more and a few more boards and balusters.

The rain is still falling--one of those light, soaking rains which should restore the trees to the browned trees and lawns. That will be a nice way to slide into August--with renewed, springtime-like greens.

I just looked at all of the vegetation around me and realized that I am happy to live in so green a place.

It is going to be a great day. I am sure of it.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD