Dear Diary,
I would like to be able to fill you with our fun filled stories of summer. Instead, I’m covered with a heated blanked, have the heat turned on in my house, and have replaced my pomegranate-lemonade with a hot chocolate.
While much of the US and Canada are currently being subject to multiple heat waves, our East Coast has been plagued with dreary cloud covered days with temperatures barely hovering around double digits. June was a bust with 20-some days of rain, with a short six-day spurt of summer in early July; and that is where it ended. I hate to jump on the bandwagon and talk about the weather, but really, this is something else!
I realize that Newfoundlanders are a tough breed, but really. This is unnecessary and quite frankly depressing. Somewhere out there people are visiting the beach and building sandcastles; they're sipping margarita’s with tiny umbrellas, while their children collect sea shells and tickle their toes in the ocean.
Here? Here, I wake each morning to the same grey coloured sky, sun-less and without heat; only to find my children have resumed their catatonic state in front of the television or computer. Their once sun-kissed faces are now chalk-like and frazzled. We have visited every indoor skate park I am aware of, gone swimming (at the indoor pool),played ball hockey in the drizzle, barbecued in gale force winds; at this point I’m not even sure where my patio furniture cushions are as we’ve only used them once.
I am searching for that silver lining or better still that “sell off vacation” far, far away! As if it wasn’t all bad enough, even the weekly flyers are taunting me. I enjoy my ritual weekly jaunt through the flyers. Sales? I love sales! Who’s got the steal this week? But, no. Instead, in large bolded letters I find, “BACK TO SCHOOL” littered on each and every flyer there is.
“Sweet mother! Are you kidding me??”. Here we are crossing our fingers, praying like it’s nobodys’ business for summer to just simply start! - Break out the bag of salt and dump it in the wound. Ouch! The saddest part? I hustled my little self right to Staples. What else was there to do? My eyes twinkled with the sights of “sale” and “Save 80%” signs. This was it people! If I wasn’t going to see the sun again, I was going to save a bundle on my back to school shopping! In your face Mother Nature!
Like any narcotic, my buzz was short and unfulfilling. Still, I feel that I must not give up. The sweet smells of my raspberry sorbet hand soap and pomegranate lemonade body wash travel through the house giving a little glimpse of what summer should be. With the help of Bath & Body Works and some online shopping I will maximize the scents of summer. Crank up the heat, break out the beach towels, dig out some shorts and flip flops. Where I live, in my house…..it’s summer!
…Metro’s forecast is….rain, drizzle, fog and more gale force winds – for the entire week!
Forget it, I’m going back to bed!
