Summer Time, Summer Time, Summer Time

So yesterday was a blistering hot day and we have more to come over the weekend and into Monday. I hate hearing a forecast like that. My body likes cool. My mind likes cool. Everything about me likes cool.
On a hot day when I see the heat broiling up from the pavement and feel the still, wet heaviness of the humid air, sometimes I get so frustrated I want to jump out of my life. I want to leave Southern Ontario's green fields and blue skies and head for somewhere--anywhere--that is cool. I remember one unusually hot September when we had to have the air on for yet another day and I felt like crying. To suffer through the humidity in July or even August I could understand, but in September? Enough already!
Last summer I spent a good part of my days in the basement cutting out and sewing together the 5,224 pieces for a king-size quilt for our bed. I know that seems a crazy time of year to be working on a quilt but the basement was cool and I could forget about the baking days outside. Well, except when I came up for meals and to go swimming in our pool. Then, I was glad it was warm with the refreshing water flowing over my body and revitalizing me. I spent part of every day swimmimg lengths and just enjoying the freeing coolness of the water washing over me.
As I write this hubby is outside vacuuming our pool, getting it all ready for tomorrow's small family pool party.
And that brings me to the things I like about the summer. I like wearing fewer clothes, sandals, bare feet, ripping off my top in my office when the heat is momentarily too much (hot flashes, you know), and I like going places and drinking in the beauty of Ontario's farmlands, her trees, her lakes, her sunny blue skies, her sunsets over Lake Huron. I like jumping in the car without having to think about all those extras of winter--extra mitts, hat, emergency winter survival kit, blanket, boots--no matter where we are going. I like the relaxation of it, which here in Ontario, we particularly need. I like the evenings that are warm enough to sit out and watch the stars, as long as we have put on some insect spray. I like the fire pit at my son's house where we sit around the fire and 'watch the evening tire' as John Denver put it, eating a little, drinking a little, maybe singing a few songs. I love the singing. In fact, now that I really look at it, summer is pretty cool!