The higher level I become (because I refuse to say the older I get,) the more I realize I dislike summer. Some people get the blues during deep winter and I find myself enjoying them a little more. I like the shorter days. I like blue jeans and a hoodie. I like long sleeve shirts and boots with thick socks. Hot. Coffee.

No, my hands dislike the cold and I still want to be inside, however, living in the very humid south during the summer is just plain miserable.

Today it will probably reach 100 degrees. People on the left coast and in the desert probably want to slap me but oh my various gods it's really obnoxious out here. It's also 100% humidity at any given moment, so as soon as you step outside, you're sweating. The air feels like you're breathing water. It's heavy and everything is sticky. And by all that is holy I think leather or vinyl seats should be outlawed here. It's just evil.

So, when I hole up in the house because it's almost as hot inside as it is outside, I thumb through a random mail order catalog that already has Christmas or Halloween items listed. I sit in front of the window a/c and think of fall festivals and cider. I think of naked trees and seeing my breath in the dark while waiting on my kids' bus. I close my eyes and smell the leaves burning in burn barrels and new fall shows. Trick or Treating and birthdays.
New school years and back to school clothes.

As for this particular year, I'll be holding my breath and waiting for my 1st release, Devil in a Red Kilt to come out. Another story set in the fall - around my favorite time of year....a Halloween party and the cold winter of Scotland. Places and times that I so love.

So for now, I'll sit around in front of the a/c and wait out the hot. I hope you guys can stay cool too.