Best Time of the Year

For as much as I complain about my life here, there is much that I will miss when we finally leave The Sandbox and this is no longer home.

I am a person who needs sunshine. Here? I have it almost all of the time. Even in the winter months when it is cold [that is a relative term] it is still, for the most part, sunny with a blue sky nearly every day. About now, though, it starts getting light outside before five in the morning. In June, it will be light outside shortly after four in the morning. I am a morning person. I would much rather have the daylight earlier than late [actually, late would be good, too]. I believe I was one of those people, when we lived in the States, that had SAD [seasonal affective disorder]. I do not like the cold. I was born in upstate New York, outside of Buffalo. There, it is cold. Winter starts in October and ends in April. I lived in New Hampshire for many, many years. Winter starts in October and ends in March. Even North Carolina, which we consider to be "home," now, has a winter albeit not nearly as severe as an upstate New York or New England one. No thank you. I want sun. Blue skies. At least 90 degrees every day. Even warmer if there is no humidity.

It is a beautiful sunshiny day here in The Sandbox. The forecast is the same today as it was yesterday and as it will be tomorrow. These are the days I will miss. We have not reached our "summer" temperatures yet. It will be 115 degrees every single day of June, July and August. Some days will be even warmer hotter. I don't mind them. We have virtually no humidity so it is not the same in the heat, here, as it is in say North Carolina in August, which is close to unbearable because of the humidity - and where there are no good hair days - for the same reason.

Today, there is an article in one of our papers that says, "Summer is here!" It is melon season. I bought a melon on Wednesday - not a watermelon [there are no seedless watermelon's here - why?], but today, I figured out that it was a Juan Canary Melon. One of the sweetest, juiciest melons I can remember eating in a long time. I'll need to get another one, tomorrow. And a watermelon, too. Melon is going to be part of my new diet! I can eat a lot of it. It is fairly low in calories, and filling. Surely no physician would sanction a "melon and water" diet, but I am going to give it a try. No. Of course I'm not going to only eat melon and only drink water. For dinner tonight I am going to have a salad with crab meat and two glasses of grape juice [wink, wink].

Not too long after we had moved here, we were at a gathering and someone asked me where we would go for our first vacation. Everyone here seems to do a lot of traveling. It is part of the lifestyle [and another thing I will miss when we finally return to the States]. In answer to the question I said, "I don't know. Somewhere hot and sunny." Everyone laughed, and someone commented, "So, you're just going to go outside, right?" Ha ha. Funny. As it was our first vacation was to Italy. It was November. It was not hot or sunny [it rained almost the entire time we were there]. The weather. Here. That will be one of the things I miss the most. I know that we, as it stands for the time being, are planning on someday returning to North Carolina. I am starting to wonder if that is the right place. Arizona may be more our style insofar as weather and temperature goes. [Texas though, as far as our political leaning. If they were to actually secede? We're there! DH was born in Texas. Would not be difficult for him to go back.]

Anyway, it is finally time for me to start working again. I've only been working a little bit, part-time the past couple of weeks. Time to get out there and really work, though! The pool will be almost warm enough to float around in by the end of the month. [DH went in yesterday. I can't go in until it is about 82 degrees. It is only 76 degrees, right now. He said it was "refreshing." I bet it was!] If my blogging starts becoming somewhat lax. That is why. I'll be busy working. I've got a cruise that we're going on in a month or so, and I am going to need to be tanned. If I had a lap top that was wireless I could accomplish so much more, outside. We have a lap top - it is DH's - and I've never liked using it. And, for whatever reason, we aren't hooked up to be "wireless." That may need to be fixed in the coming weeks...

Enough of a work break. Time to head back to my chaise next to the pool.