Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Summer weather

It's been really HOT here in Florida since we got here in June but the past few days have been really, really HOT. When I get in the car after it has sat outside for awhile the temp reading is over 100. I never knew it went up that high. I read in the paper that on days as HOT as the past few days the temp in a car can reach 150! You don't want to leave your pet in the car, or your wife, my wife joked because I like to "just run into a store for a minute" and leave her in the car, stuffing the keys in my pocket. Now, that doesn't happen much any more. We fight over the a/c - she likes it on from the moment we get in the car until we come to a total stop. I like to run the windows down and enjoy the (admittedly warm) breeze, act Floridian, I say, don't be such a sissy who needs to live with a/c all the time. She's not having it. Give me a/c or go it alone, she says. In the early morning when we go to the YMCA for our workout, there are often little frogs on our car. Yes, on our car. It is also a hot, muggy 77 degrees usually, too. So, I willingly turn on the a/c - who wants a frog jumping on their lap when your driving. It's dark out, too, so you can never be sure where those little guys are. Weather is a huge news item here. The Southeast has had an especially wet summer. And there hasn't been a hurricane yet. "Yet", we are constantly reminded, as if we could forget we are in the middle of hurricane season. There are weekly columns in the paper about how to prepare for a hurricane. The local tv news is always reminding people to keep their eyes on the tropics for that is where the danger of a hurricane lurks. This weekend heavy rains are forecast due to a tropical disturbance, which is not even a tropical storm. Because the ground is so saturated already flash flooding is a good bet. What that means to me other than the water pooling up in streets and yards, is that the frogs will be out in force. And their barking will keep us up at night, and they will be hanging out all over our garage door, and they will be sitting on our car in the morning so the a/c will get turned on and my wife will be happy.