It may seem strange to say good bye to Summer while our daytime temps are still in the upper 90’s but for me the time has come. I stuck my big toe in the pool yesterday and it recoiled in horror. My big toe has been in Arizona long enough to have become a really big wimp, the water temperature was down to 81 degrees. Big Toe starts to worry about the passing of the season when the water temp gets down to 85 and declares the end of season at 81. What happened to the New England Big Toe that would have declared 81 a perfectly lovely temperature? I think she is gone forever.

I had a feeling the season was going to be ending soon. Our Monsoon season officially ended on September 11 and I’ve been watching the shadows grow larger and stay longer on the pool. Other than loosing my daily dip in the pool there isn’t a lot to be sad about as summer ends, and much to be glad for. This was our hottest summer on record with 31 days hitting a high over 110 degrees. For the next seven months I won’t have to worry about burning my hand as I open the car door. I won’t have drag a bottle of cold water with me whenever I leave the house or repeatedly hear people say “Is it hot enough for you?” or “Thank goodness it’s a dry heat!”

Recliner Man and I were talking about the summers of our youths and reminiscing about some of the simple pleasures we enjoyed back then. It seems that every day at sundown we were treated to a light show from millions of lightning bugs. They were everywhere and every kid had their own empty mayonnaise jar with holes punched into the lid so that they could catch the bugs and make a night light. Lightening bugs, or fireflies as they are also known, are getting harder to find. Scientist are trying to figure out why they are disappearing and one of the theories is that we are disturbing them too much with all the light we add to the night.

One of our fondest memories was playing in the lawn sprinkler. We both grew up with the oscillating fan style so we had similar memories of trying to run through the tunnel without getting wet, almost sitting on the sprinkler to feel the full force of the water on your backside and racing headlong into the water and jumping over the sprinkler. This would go on until someone inevitably tripped over the sprinkler and broke it. Then there was a few panicked attempts to repair the sprinkler followed by another inevitable part of the memory… Mom finding out we broke her sprinkler and putting an end to the day’s fun. Recliner Man reminded me of another summertime thrill, rain. A summer shower was an urgent call to get into your swimsuit and run out into the glorious rain. You would run and run and run. It didn’t matter that running wasn’t making any sense, you weren’t getting wetter or staying dryer, and you sure didn’t have anywhere that you were running to. That didn’t matter, you just had to run. Until you slid on the wet grass and fell hard onto your butt. Then you got up and ran some more.