Monday, July 4, 2016

Summer time and the living is....not as bad as usual, so far

I could not like a season of the year any less than summer.  By far the summer is my least enjoyable time of the year.  Unlike year's past, I waited to July 4th to write about the summer as I really tried to give it my best!  This year the transition to warm weather months was eased greatly by all the preparation for the wedding of the century.  As my daughter Elizabeth's wedding drew close, April was more mild and wet than hot.  In fact her wedding day, April 30th, was very cloudy, wet and sometimes stormy.

The afterglow of her wedding, which was perfect in every way, must have helped me get through May with no problems.  I immersed myself back into all things ministry and before we knew it, we were celebrating Memorial Day.  Again my recollection of that weekend was more warm(as opposed to hot) and very wet.  We had friends over for the day and we never spent any time outside because of the weather. 

As we transitioned into June I had two big events for the men I minister to at Rayburn Correctional.  A Friday evening retreat event was followed up by a visit by the Archbishop.  Soon after I had Baptisms and a big Knights of Columbus function and we were at Father's Day.  This event certainly ushered in the summer wake up call as we began to experience 96 degree highs with a heat index between 104 and 110.  Yes, summer is completely and fully upon us.  I don't do well with this type of heat and I fixate too much on how long this will last.  Now that we are in early July, we still have about 75 days or so when the weather can remain just like this. 

This 4th of July weekend ushers in my 2nd vacation week of 2016 and my 1st summer time vacation.  Off to North Carolina tomorrow as we celebrate granddaughter Katelyn's 1st birthday.  How time flies!  We will get about 4 good days with the grandkids and hope to do one of our day-long adventures with big brother Calvin who will celebrate his 4th birthday around Labor Day.  Tomorrow we hope to make a stop at a peach farm before we get to North Carolina!

As summer proceeds we will begin watching the red hot waters of the Atlantic and the Caribbean, as well as the Gulf of Mexico.  Late summer is actually the truly active part of the hurricane season.  Of course there are two big distractions this summer, the Olympics from Rio starts next month and the presidential nominating conventions start in two weeks; up first will be the Republicans.  An every summer distraction is now just a little over 3 weeks away as the NFL season begins with training camp.  We deserve a good year from those New Orleans Saints after the last two disappointments.

For me personally I look forward to more exciting ministry opportunities in the weeks and months ahead and continue to pray for moderating weather and no threats from tropical activity!

 And I will endure summer because I look forward everyday to the seasons of fall and winter; can't come fast enough!

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