Aug 22, 2017 3 min read

It seems as if we blinked and it’s suddenly late August. Where has the year gone all of a sudden? Kids are heading back to school already, football teams and marching bands are practicing, and high temperatures the rest of this week will only reach the unseasonably cool mid-70s. The dog days of summer came and went without their usual sizzle, and we’ve only broken the 90-degree mark one day so far this year.

I feel like all I have done this summer is cut the grass. With all of the rain we’ve had, it grew like a tropical rainforest, and trying to find time to mow in between the deluges was a challenge, wasn’t it? I’m ready for a nice long stretch of dry September days when I can trim the mowing schedule to once every two weeks rather than nearly twice a week. The lawn does look lush and green, I must say, but it’s also being invaded by weeds and vines that I’m pretty sure only previously thrived in the Amazon. At one point, Pittsburgh was running more than six inches above normal rainfall for the year, and that number is still over five inches above average.

My lawnmower is racking up the mileage while my poor golf clubs gather dust. The fitness tracker on my wrist tallies up just over 8,000 steps when I mow the lawn, but I’d much rather tote my clubs in a pull cart while walking nine holes. Then again, the way I play means I probably also walk 8,000 steps doing that and chasing wayward golf shots into the weeds and trees. The golf courses have had a heck of a summer, and part of one that I often play, Frosty Valley Golf Links, was underwater a few weeks ago after even more flooding. Swimming spots haven’t fared any better, with Sandcastle Waterpark being overrun by the muddy Monongahela River. Both establishments have cleaned up and reopened, and I pledge to visit them before Labor Day.

While the humidity has still been off the charts this summer, the lack of 90-degree days hasn’t bothered me one bit. Maybe the absence of sunshine and hazy, hot, humid stretches of weather is why this summer seems to have flown by so quickly. That really hit home when I visited friends in Florida for a few days last week and was blasted with 94 degrees, plus high humidity and blistering sun. It actually felt refreshing to step off the plane into a relatively cooler 82 degrees back home. I told my friends I would savor that sizzling memory to pull out sometime deep into February when our toes are tingling from the cold. Meantime, it’s finally time to dust off those golf clubs.

Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.