I wonder if you’ve noticed, too, that regardless of where you are these days the topic of conversation eventually turns to 1) the weather, 2) whether all the crops will ever get into the ground, and/or 3) that mowing a lawn is pretty much a full-time job. Number 3 is where I am right now.

I am thankful that my livelihood doesn’t depend on the weather, as is the case for all the farmers fretting over late planting, so (2) is not a worry for me. Neither is trying to get a new house built this summer, as friends of mine are attempting. Right now, progress is halting at best.

All the rain we’ve had is really merely an annoyance for me and many others. It’s just that at approximately the same time I am congratulating myself on how nice the lawn looks now that it is freshly mowed, it rains once again. And that means that in just a few days the lawn won’t look so good again.

Oh, the lawn will be lush and green, which is pretty much guaranteed this summer. It’s just that neat and tidy and trimmed doesn’t last.

With this kind of cool, wet summer, I’m just glad I no longer have teenagers in the house who are summer lifeguards. We did that for numerous summers. Several times when it was too cool and/or rainy to really get the pool season started, unhappy young lifeguards were stuck at home not making any money, not seeing their pool friends, and not getting any time in the sun.

I also remember the times I was on a camp staff when cool, rainy weather arrived at about the same time the campers came in to stay for a month. Because of the weather, some of the programming had to be adjusted, and sometimes clothes and gear got damp, and that generally made the girls unhappy. That easily makes the transition to homesickness, which isn’t a good time for anyone involved. If the staff wasn’t very careful, rainy, gloomy days at the start of a camp session could become a death knell for the session. Yet It always amazed me how some sunny weather dried up not only the sky but also the tears, and camp was up and going again, full force.

Interesting, isn’t it, what an effect the weather has on all of us? I appreciate that it is not something we mere mortals can control, even with all of the technical information and scientific instruments we have available in this 21st century.

And you know, when it gets right down to it, I think that’s just fine.