Well, now it is Summer ...

... as of 6:07 a.m. today.

I’m not sure whether to be ecstatic about Summer’s arrival because it seems that our two heat waves, first at Memorial Day, then this past Sunday and Monday, already placed us in quasi-Summer mode with that horrid heat and humidity.

Then, there was the wicked storm we had Monday night that the weatherman promised would break the heat. Lightning streaked across the night sky in bright slashes, the wind was wild and rain was coming down in buckets.

At least that is what I heard happened during Monday night’s Summer-like storm.

No, I wasn’t on vacation, but sound asleep. I missed that whole storm that knocked the heat back 25 degrees, zapped the humidity bigtime plus gave our lawns and gardens a good soaking. It must have been one heck of a dream I was having that I was so engrossed that I missed all the excitement. I slept through Mother’s Nature’s antics, and, what my mother used to say was “God moving his furniture around” whenever thunder was roaring and rumbling as it sometimes does.

I also lost my power that evening at 11:30 p.m. I didn’t know until Tuesday morning when the alarm went off. I had shut the A/C off in anticipation of the storm, and, yes it was warm, but I never run the A/C when a bad storm is on the way, even though I have a whole-house surge protector.

The battery-operated alarm clock went off with its incessant peeping and I keep it on the kitchen table since the nightstand is a little too handy to hit the snooze bar, or shut it off altogether and return to dreamland.

Usually the dim light from the kitchen stove’s digital clock guides me down the short hallway to shut off that annoying alarm sound. But not this time because it was pitch dark. So, how difficult could it be to find the kitchen table? It was not easy! Somehow, in the pitch darkness I got totally turned around and ended up at the front of the house, and, all the while the alarm clock was merrily peeping away. I gritted my teeth, so annoyed by the noise, and the power outage, plus I managed to run into two table lamps (‘scuse me) and the rocking chair (ouch) in my journey to find the alarm clock. Finally, I located the clock and found the flashlight which I also keep in the kitchen, since 99% of the time when the power goes off, it is when I am up and at the computer.

About 5:15 a.m. I called DTE, our energy provider, and reported the outage. There was no restoration time – that never happens. You ALWAYS get a restoration time. Great, just great!

Then, with my trusty flashlight I went to get the emergency lanterns and battery-operated radio, because who knew when the power would return? Luckily it was 77 degrees in the house, so not unbearable, but I have some battery-operated fans anyway.

I called my boss and left him a voicemail with my bad news – since I work from home, I was out of commission until the power was restored. I headed down to the Park. I walked five miles – my only walk this week because it rained yesterday and it will rain tomorrow morning. This morning I had to go grocery shopping to replenish the food I lost since the power did not come on until 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

A robo-call alerted me around noon that the power would be restored by late afternoon and the outage was not storm-related, but a result of high electrical demand which caused a transformer to blow. Well, on Monday morning DTE had suggested that we set our thermostats to 80 degrees to avoid this very issue.

So, now the power is back, there is food in the fridge again, and all should be good except my issue with the little ants has taken a twist. You might recall that the spate of rainy and humid days caused little ants to appear at my kitchen sink a week or so ago ... well, those ants at the sink have dwindled – that’s good. But, while I don’t have ants in my pants, a good many of my tiny, multi-segmented friends have turned into mini flying ants. They especially like zooming around the light where I am working ... I have squished countless ants today. That’s not so good. And, as I typed this paragraph, I felt a presence on my face ... I reached up and swatted a flying ant. I Googled (of course) to find out what was going on with the flying ants. They are looking for a mate and once they find a mate, they lose their wings. I hope a lot of ants are in the mood tonight, so I don’t deal with too many of them tomorrow.

Ants at a picnic you just deal with. Ants joining you on the kitchen table while you are working ... well, I have no words for that.

Maybe I am ready for Fall – Summer has way too many hassles.

Sometimes a picture paints a thousand words, and I’m not going to share pictures of my ant friends, but I will spotlight some sidewalk art I’ve discovered over the past few weeks. There will be artwork now that the kids are out of school, except they probably don’t want to waste their pastel chalks or spray chalk since we have rain so much these days. We will have a rainy weekend once again.

Here are some drawings that have graced the sidewalks in the ‘hood and at the Park, including the picture up top – I guess the artist figured it was hot enough to call it “Summertime” when they created the picture.

So, the longest day of the year is almost over and we now begin that slow journey toward Winter. I’ll leave you with this message I saw scrawled in chalk along the perimeter path a few days ago.

“Send joy in the journey” ... I kind of like that thought and I’ll hold onto it in my mind ... make it my mantra for the rest of 2018. It will keep me from getting any crabbier.

You can catch up on my blog posts before I started blogging at Patch in August 2013 by going here: http://lindaschaubblog.net/