A Special August

Yesterday I heard climate change predictions for the rest of this century that indicated the Midwestern U.S. might see temperatures rise towards and even above 125° during summer heat waves. Right now, that’s kind of difficult for me to imagine, especially as August 2008 has been one for the record books. It hasn’t been hot here. It hasn’t been hazy here. It hasn’t been particularly humid here. Boy, is this weather messed up! Nice weather in August may well be a first in my lifetime. If more Augusts were like this one, I might even learn to like summer!

Of course, even this August isn’t perfect (but it’s close). At the moment everything is pretty dry, getting dryer by the day, and the chances for rain have so far all evaporated before arriving. I’m starting to see the forest understory of annual plants withering and shriveling. Dust clouds are common behind tractors or cows’ hooves. The leaves are turning a duller shade of emerald, a sure sign of late summer. They haven’t yet reached that shade of dull, brownish green that comes just before the fall color change, but they aren’t far from that.

This morning as I left the mountain, the light was that of early morning--another sign fall is near. During early summer, the morning feels already half over when I leave for work. This morning the light was still soft and golden, the moon high in the west. It was the kind of morning where I would have been happy to just spend the day doing nothing more than staring at a horizon and watching the world go by.