Swapping Climates

Life is what happens while you're making other plans.

On the day my husband decided to skid off-road as far as his bread-winning trajectory was concerned, I had lived in Texas for 24 years, London for 7, Wales for 2, Texas for another 19. It seemed like this last phase would persist for at least another few years, until our kid was out of high school. I've long had mixed feelings about such a long stay in somewhere so blasted blistering hot. In past years, I was often given to wondering just how I got stuck living somewhere about as hospitable as the moon, at least for 3 months out of the year. The heat leaves you feeling beaten up, wrung out.

To cool off, you go to a watering hole, Austin's famous Deep Eddy pool, but it's crowded. And if you do find it in yourself to venture out in the cool hours of the day, then you're treated to the din of A/C units and the whir of sprinkler systems struggling against the brown despair. And that's how I feel about summer in Austin, one of the greener parts of the Lone Star State. You can only imagine what I must think about West Texas, where I grew up. Mostly. (photo courtesy of Steve Hopkins, Wikimedia)

When my husband announced a 3 month contract in Long Island and an uncertain future after that, I found myself ignoring the uncertainty and drooling over the prospect of long evening walks at 72 degrees Fahrenheit.

Here is our wee rented cottage in central Long Island.


Here are the temps predicted for our part of Long Island, where we now reside for the summer.

Sunday: 85 Monday: 95 Tuesday: 90 Wednesday: 83

Meanwhile, temps in Austin are dropping and for the first time in weeks the weatherman is talking about steady rainfall back home. Monday it will be hotter in Austin that it is here in central Long Island. It moves me to fashion a haiku on the malice of butterflies and other insects who won't stop flapping their damn wings and thus making all this weather:

Eddy and then a
Deeper eddy while June Bugs
Re-make your fine plans