Summer Storm

The day was hot and muggy, more like Florida than Pennsylvania. When I first moved here, few people had air conditioning because they didn't need it. It rarely got hot enough to use it. Our house had one powerful wall unit in the family room that could cool things down if needed. There were folding doors to dining room and to the hall. Close them, enjoy the day, and turn it off at night when things cooled down.  

But our neighbors had started to convert their homes to central air. We bought a couple of window units for the bedrooms. We used them more and more, year after year, and left the doors to the kitchen open to air condition the whole main floor. 

These days hot and muggy are the norm. A perfect storm formed today that reminds me of summer vacations in Florida, where most afternoons were relieved of their heat and humidity by a storm. 

Today's storm is not like the one I wrote about a few months ago, the kind that sent us to the front porch to play Monopoly when we were kids. That made the air smell the smell that carries loam and green plants. 

Today's storm is sticky and steamy. At least by the end of it an hour later, the temperature dropped 20 degrees and the only thunder and lighting that remains is on the weather app of my iPhone.

A Hundred Days of Happiness is a daily writing practice that opens a landscape of discovery into my own human experience.

Katherine Cartwright has been blogging since 2012, and each year brings new wonders. She asks big questions of the small things in life.