May 03rd, 2019

It's May 3rd today which means we are just a few weeks from our official "Rainy Season".   I like the rain. I love the smell of it.  The air is  floral perfumed.  I love the sense of it.  The rain makes everything seem fresh and clean.  I adore the sound of it pittypatting on the roof and the windows.

Everything that grows is so happy then. The lawn perks up, the shrubs and flowers bloom like mad, even the wildflowers are happy.  Which in turn makes the butterflies and bees overjoyed.  The hummingbirds hum, other birds splash around in the puddles and  I can take those oh so pretty pictures of water drops on flowers and other green growing things which I adore.  And all is well with the world.

Well, maybe not everything.  Summer is the season of humidity.  There are days when the humidity percentage is higher than the temperature.  I'm not even joking a little bit.  The deeper we get into summer, AKA "The Rainy Season", the thicker the humidity becomes until, at times, it almost feels as if you are trying to breathe under water.  Sigh.  It's ok.  It certainly doesn't prevent me from spending time outside!  Nope.  There isn't much that can do that!  Humidity be damned, I'm going outside!

But if we can overlook that one teensy thing, the humidity, we are enterring the visually prettiest part of the year here.

Oh it's always lovely here.  There is always something growing, something blooming and of course, I certainly cannot think of a single argument against the stunning beauty of the sea any day of the year.   But during rainy season, everything is so lush and ripe with loveliness. It's almost an overload of beauty. 

And still I hear so much criticism of Florida in Summer. Humidity..., heat...., Sun damage...hurricanes.... 

Ok. Let's look at this one complaint at a time.

Humidity, yes.  But I've lived in a lot of humid places. Illinois and Missouri  were both  incredibly humid in Summer as was Connecticut and Texas.  But in those states  we lived nowhere near the ocean and here, I can dabble my toes in the ocean when it gets muggy.  I also have a lovely sea breeze most days which I didn't have in either of those places. (and better air conditioning!)  And hey, humidity...of course!  What did you expect?  It's Florida people, subtropical!

The heat?  Honestly, most days it is cooler here than  back in Colorado!  I know because I check those things.  I have my weather stats set up to tell me the what's happening weather wise not just here but also back in Colorado, New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania (where the kids are).  Our summer numbers here are almost never worse than any of those places and often better.  Truth.

Sun damage.  Well it's nice out most of the year and I spend a lot of time out in it but I do wear sunscreen. That's just good common sense.  But you know what?  As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, the only sunburn I ever got was in Connecticut on a cloudy day so if I have damaged my skin, it was probably then.  And speaking of sun exposure by the way, Colorado has more than 300 sunny days a year!  More than Florida! (Florida averages 175 just FYI) To say nothing of the fact that where we lived in Colorado we were a mile closer to the actual sun.  Denver...mile high city...it's not just a saying folks, it's true.  That's 5, 280 feet!!  I think the elevation here is something like 7.

Hurricanes. Well yes. I cannot argue about that.  There can be hurricanes here.  But often there are not.  The last hurricane we had here, Irma, was a humdinger!  And we were fine.  The one before that was 17 years prior.  Lots of places have extreme weather:  Wildfires, tornadoes, blizzards, earthquakes (not really weather I know), droughts, floods,  Mother Nature has lots of tricks in her bag.  Enough for everyone. The point is, there is no place to hide from the possibility of bad weather.  It's everywhere.  Here, yes, possible hurricanes during the hurricane season. Which coincides with the rainy season. What you gonna do?  Weather is gonna happen.

So, while I might quietly complain  to myself  on a super humid day in the summertime I certainly cannot get cranky about the results of the humidity.  I do love those pretty flowers.  Apparently we cannot have one without the other. Balance in the Universe once again.

Have a great weekend y'all.