Take the heat

Since we're coming up on two years of living in Virginia, and I'm going through my second round of experiencing the seasons, I've come to understand that this state basically has no Spring.  Winter lasts only about six weeks (from mid-December to mid-February), then suddenly we're talking 70s.  Today, April 1st, we're cresting the 80 degree mark.  It's really quite depressing for someone like me who loves winter and often opens her closet door just to stare longingly at her sweaters hanging neatly in a row.  However, there is something kind of wonderful about the summertime lifestyle.  The swimsuit simply lives on the edge of the bathtub because it's always wet and needs to be dry by tomorrow so that the poolside (and here, beach side) activities can be repeated again.  There's lots of beer-drinking because everyone is so darn hot, and though we use the AC as much as we can, by the time the June electric bill arrives in the mail we make ourselves go old school in the evenings: windows and fans.  Long about July, you learn to just be content sweating as you read your book and sip your third margarita. (At least I do.  Cute husband absolutely cannot stand the heat, mostly due to his very pale skin--his idea of a perfect summer day is going to three movies in a row so he can revel in the always overpowering movie theater AC.  My mom also feels this way; she has pale skin too).

And oh the summer rains--the waiting inside for the sky to clear so you can go back to the pool because you know it will be hotter and muggier afterwards than it was before.  Or the few times when the rain does cool things off a bit and the breeze that follows the storm is like a new start on the day...

I just think it's so interesting how our moods and routines change just a little bit with each season.  Is this something we impose upon ourselves or something imposed upon us?  Nearly all of the bloggers I follow seem to want to document these season changes--there have been so many posts about the changing trees, the freakishly warm weather, the demands of changing one's wardrobe with the season. Awhile ago I wrote about how in winter it always seems like we are being led into hibernation--our god-given time to just ruminate a bit, stay inside, care for the ones we love for lack of anything better to do.  And so too does spring and the coming summer seem like instructions handed down from a higher place: go outside, be happy there, let the sun ease your worried mind. 

It's simplistic for sure, but most right answers are.