July 30, 2025
As July burns itself out—I had to use a heat metaphor
because this month has been brutal—I find myself thinking about the passage of
time. And also, the fickleness of humanity.
On the one hand time seems to be speeding by at the
speed of light. And on the other hand, we’re obsessed with the slowness of it
all. An example?
“My gosh, I can’t believe it’s almost August already!
Oh, and will these long stiflingly hot days never end?”
We can’t blame God for any of this. We change our
moods and our minds so darn fast, I’m certain He’s come to the conclusion that
no matter what He does, we will never be happy.
The heat is slightly less oppressive today, and
according to the weather network, cooler temperatures are on their way. The
highs here will be in the mid-seventies tomorrow, and it will likely be raining
as well. For those of you who claim they would be happy with mid-seventies year-round,
tomorrow should be a banner day.
Personally, I’ve ventured out very little over these
last couple of previews-of-hot-as-hell weeks. I don’t do well in the high heat
and humidity, and so I try to structure my days in such a way that I don’t have
to. I am eternally grateful, each and every day, that we have central A/C. I
would like to point out that this is not a brag; it’s gratitude. We went the first
sixty plus years of our lives without any A/C at all. Well, unless you count
the bowl of ice in front of the box fan.
We had a window air conditioner for a couple of years,
in our late fifties, and that was miraculous. In the days before our daughter
moved in with us, in the deep winter and high summer, we closed off our
upstairs. In the winter, our heating costs were not outrageous, and in the few
of summers that we had that window a/c unit, a couple of well-placed fans—in the
living room and my office—gave us a nicely cooled house all day long. Then we’d
shut the bedroom door at night, and sleep very well.
I am very aware that a lot of people don’t have air
conditioners at home. I am grateful on their behalf that many cities have
places where folks can go to cool down. For me, in my younger days, that was
always in my bathtub. You can get nicely cooled, wearing your bathing suit and
not using the “hot” tap to fill the tub.
For a while we had small swimming pools in our back
yard. Over our years in this house, we had a couple of them. They were
inexpensive, and about three feet deep. Every day, after work, David and I
would put on our suits as soon as we got home and head out to the pool. We both
agreed that once you got your body temperature down in that pool, you didn’t
get quite so hot again.
Sometimes bedtime would be preceded by another dip in
that pool. A final cooling off and bit of relaxation before sleep.
I can and do miss those days and at the same time
acknowledge that I would be hard-pressed to get into either of those pools now.
My mobility isn’t what it was even five years ago which is not a surprise to
me, or anyone who really knows me.
We’ve had two meals of beans from our garden, as well
as having frozen two meals worth. We purchased a vacuum-seal appliance a few
months ago, an inexpensive one just to see how well we liked it. Don’t like it,
love it. When our inexpensive model died (likely from overuse) we bought a
slightly better one, on sale, during prime days.
And as a side note, our farmer from down the road is
back again for one more season, and we are so happy. We plan on buying lots of
corn.
We have a lot of tomatoes on those plants of ours, many
growing and some beginning to ripen. We’re hoping for a bumper crop this year.
We may get one, too, thanks to that darn heat and so much rain.
Fellow fickle folks, I present to you yet one more
fact of life: the heat and the rain can both be a pain, but not even they are
all bad.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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