It’s hard to believe that the summer is winding down but I have to say that, for once, I won’t be too sorry to see it go. These past few weeks have been nothing but hot and dry and hot. Unlike most of the rest of the country, our little town has been curiously free from rain and thunderstorms. Frequent forecasts of precipitation have rarely come to fruition, and our brown, patchy lawn is testament to the lack of water. We did finally get some rain this evening, but it didn’t last longer than several minutes and didn’t even fully wet down the porch. I hear that it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, but I’m not believing it until I see it.

Making the prolonged heat even less bearable is the fact that our car’s air conditioning went out three or four weeks ago and, though it’s something we seldom need up where we live, when we do need it, we NEED it. We had it in to the mechanic’s shop earlier this week and the problem was diagnosed as some sort of magnet doohickey having bit the dust. We’re waiting to hear back about how much the replacement part will cost, but at this point I’d be willing to pay almost anything to get it back in order. There is a temptation just to leave it be, as summer is on its wane, but we’d just find ourselves in the same boat next summer and that thought hardly bears thinking.