September 13th, 2019

Florida.  The Sunshine State.  Endless days of basking in the sunshine and never ever a single flake of snow to shovel nor icey patch to slip upon.  Right?  Well, except for the rainy season of course.  And honestly even in the rainy season we get a lot of sun.  I have seen, more times than I can count, times when the sun is shining brightly WHILE it's raining.  Yes I have.  And recently an afternoon when it was raining in the front yard but not in the backyard.  Yupyup.  In short we have a crazy lot of weather here.  Most of it involving sunshine.

It's not unexpected, Look at Florida on a map.  If I remember correctly, the southern part of Florida is tropical but the part of Florida where we live  is considered Sub-tropical.  And if that is true we are seriously teetering on the very brink of being tropical.  Which means lots of green growing lushiousness, lots of sunshine and warm balmy days most of the year.  With the incredibly rude intrusion of the summer where instead of balm there is humid.  Instead of warm there is beastly hot. And instead of days on end of sunshine, there is sun interspersed with torrential rain and the occasional tropical storm/hurricane drive-by.  Summer here is not for sissies.

But it is what it is and we have adapted.  We still spend time outside and we still go for walks but instead of open windows we have some serious air-conditioning going on and sometimes we require several showers a day just to be able to stand ourselves.  We drink copious amounts of water, eat lighter meals and rest often while exerting.  It's what ya gotta do.

Summer is just summer.  It is now a known quantity.  July through September for sure...and sometimes the very end of June...occasionally a few days at the beginning of October, being outside can be a misery.  We know this, we are prepared for this, we fully expect this. 

Which is why, last week, I was flabbergasted to look at the weather app on my phone and see that we had 0% chance of rain.  0% chance of rain?  In September?  I was certain that my phone was on the fritz.  So I checked the weather report in the newspaper....0% chance of rain.  Holy Cats !  Just to be absolutely certain, I listened to the TV weather report. 0% chance of rain!  They all agreed.  

And not just one day, multiple days.  In a row!  To say the least, this was unusual!  Then, curious, I checked a little further.  The humidity was 51%. 51%!!!!!!!  In September!!!!!  That's just crazy!  I couldn't wait to get outside!  We have never experienced this the entire time we've lived here or even visited here (before we moved)!

It was glorious.  The air felt soft.  I didn't feel as if I were trying to breathe underwater.  And I didn't break into a sweat walking to the mailbox and back!  I found myself driving with the windows down.  I spent as much time as possible outside.  Oh yes, it was hot, of course it was hot.  It's still summer here. But heat with so much less humidity is just the most lovely thing.

Four days in a row we had 0% chance of rain and humidity in the 50% range or lower!  And I dared to think, perhaps we were going to be blessed with an early autumn. A shorter summer than usual wouldn't go amiss.  Obviously, I am an idiot.

Because, of course, then it changed.  At the end of the four days, the humidity began creeping back up, the possibility of rain increased every day and now we are once again back to the moment where there is a really good chance of rain again, every single day from now through.....well October anyway.  Things have returned to normal.

And while you would think that I would just appreciate that lovely break in the weather, instead I'm going to be a big whiny baby and say that instead, it made returning to the normal humid/hot/rainy/sunny worse.   Grumble, grouse, complain, whine, repeat.

In New England, March was my least favourite month because winter had been going on so long and spring was so close, so close, but not quite there yet.  In Colorado it was April because spring is both one of the prettiest, springiest and also one of the snowiest, most wintery parts of of the year at the same time.  One day things are blooming, the next day...blizzard!  April in Colorado is not to be trusted.  You know that true spring is on it's way .......eventually.

And here in Florida my least favourite month is definitely September.  Hurricane Season is almost over.  The Rainy season is almost over.  Humidity is almost over. But not quite. So close I can nearly taste it, but not quite.

Turns out Mother Nature is kind of a tease.  She has a wicked sense of humour.

Have a great weekend regardless of your weather!