TheBanyanTree: In the Heat of the Night

[Margaret R. Kramer]

I cut the grass yesterday afternoon and it didn’t take before I was
slathered in sweat.  My gray T-shirt was soaked through and my hair was as
wet as it gets when I wash it.  But the yard looks great.  Afterwards, as I
was trying to dry off, I knocked off a cold one (a big bottle of water!),
and enjoyed the beauty of a freshly cut lawn.

The temp got to 87 degrees yesterday.  It sure felt weird cutting down all
my tomato plants.  But even though I was still getting lots of little
tomatoes growing on them, the tomatoes weren’t ripening.  I think there isn’
t enough light now for them to ripen.  There certainly is enough heat.  And
we’ve been very wet, which tomatoes don’t like.

So I rescued all the green tomatoes from the plants and put them in two
large mixing bowls.  And then I cut away all the plants and put them onto
the compost pile.  Now my garden has a big hole in it.  Some day, maybe
someday, we’ll get a frost or a killing freeze and the rest of the garden
will go, too.

Ray and I decided to take a drive to Afton State Park.  It’s located on the
Minnesota/Wisconsin border along the St. Croix River.  Neither one of us had
ever been there, so it was a nice little trip.

We didn’t do too much hiking, because when it’s so humid, it’s difficult for
Ray to breathe, but we managed to glimpse a few beautiful, pre-peak fall
colors vistas, and we enjoyed a picnic lunch before heading back home.

I didn’t turn on the air conditioning, because there is something just wrong
about using it in October, but I kept the house shut up and the fans going.
That seemed to help keep the place cool.  But when I went to bed last night,
it’s like my body knows it’s hot and humid, and it can’t control it, so I
have hot flash after hot flash after hot flash.  I’m as drenched in bed as I
am cutting the grass.  The hot flashes are much worse during the hot summer
months than winter.  And I’m sick of them.  I don’t mind the rest of my body
going to hell during menopause, but the hot flashes are the worst.
Especially when I’m trying to get some sleep.

And what’s today going to bring?  More hot weather.  Except we’re supposed
to get some thunderstorms around noon and that’s supposed to cool us off a
bit.  Then they’re predicting cooler, more fall-like temperatures later this
week.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

margaret.kramer at polarispublications.com
'Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.
~William Shakespeare