This had to be just about the nicest summer we’ve had in a while. Mostly warm to hot, breaking in to the 90s only a few times. One of those times was 4th of July at the moomincabin. Rain and sometimes lightning but never anything very threatening, at least not any place we were. Other Great Lake Staters may beg to differ. That’s okay, it’s a big state surrounded by big bodies of water and other folks may well have experienced some nastiness. September? Spectacular right up to the end and into the first couple days of October. It has cooled down the last couple days but I don’t see a need for glubs or a balaclava or leggings (or YakTrax, heaven forbid), at least for the next 10 days or so. After that, who knows?

Every summer is different. One of the most memorable for me here on the Planet Ann Arbor was 1988. Lemme see…

— It was hot (90s and even 100s) and dry for weeks on end.

— I think that was the year our *gorgeous* flowering crab tree began to die.

— I don’t remember what our “lawn” looked like but the schoolyard grass was totally brown. I think we were at least trying to water. I think the school district gave up.

— The beach urchins were almost 4 and almost 18 months.

— We did not own an air-conditioned vee-hickle.

— Once Grandma Sally was visiting and I drove her and the beach urchins to the mall in the Jetta. Did we have a name for that car or did naming vee-hickles start with the Exxon Tanker Valdez? Which DID have A/C. It’s not a dangerous city but you do have to lock your car doors. When we came out of the mall and got back in the Jetta, the younger beach urchin began screaming as soon as I put her in her car seat and didn’t stop until we got home. Rolling the windows all the way down did not help.

— [I don’t go to the mall any more but not because of that. Well, on the off-chance I have to visit the “Genius” bar, I have to go to the mall. I wish Apple would move their store…]

— And then there was the time the younger beach urchin came down with roseola. One afternoon, her temperature matched the outdoor temperature (104). We actually had her in one of those little K-Mart style kiddie pools in the back yard, something I would not normally do with a feverish kid.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 3rd, 2019 at 5:31 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.