The Summer that Wouldn’t Come

A week ago summer officially began, but it certainly doesn’t feel that way to me. I know that when many people think about Oregon, they think rain. And I’m not going to lie—it rains quite a bit here, a steady stream of drizzles, sprinkles, showers, downpours and mists that comes down on a regular basis throughout the year. Yet summer is a different story. Generally when summer hits, it’s sunny, dry and warm. [Pause.] However that hasn’t really been the case so far this “summer”.

Last night I could hear rain falling on the roof and this morning it’s gray and cool; the high today is suppose to be 72 degrees (which I guess is fairly average for us), but it won’t feel like summer with an overcast sky. Apparently I’ll have to wait until July for the weather to get better. It will be nice to finally have consistently blue skies and to feel the warmth of the sun beaming down on me.

[Pause.] While I have complained about the drab summer, a part of me is secretly glad for the cloudy skies because I feel more productive when the weather is poor. When it’s sunny and beautiful outside, then I have more of that “I’m a kid trapped in school” mentality (when the teacher is talking and I only half listen because I’m staring out the window). Good weather is distracting.

And hot weather is miserable. Usually the weather is consistently warm in the summer, verging on hot. But there are always a few days when we hit near or past 100 degrees—and that’s when I lose all motivation to do anything; all I can do is sprawl out on the couch and watch TV with a fan blowing on me full blast (as I am someone without air conditioning). So while I’m looking forward to some sunny weather, a part of me is dreading when summer kicks into high gear and I’m dying from the heat (although that feels pretty far away right now…).