When the Air Is Thick

Not thick with anticipation, just thick. Of course, high humidity is a part of life in Florida most days. I don't generally mind it, but when we've had a brief respite, as we have the past few days, and then it comes back in full force, as it has today, it's a bit hard to deal with. Even when I lived up north, we had plenty of high-humidity days, days like today when it feels as if you're swimming when you're really just walking. Maybe because I've been congested it's bothering me.

I've always said it's stupid to move to Florida and complain about the heat (or the humidity), and usually I don't. It's easy enough most of the time to stay in air-conditioned comfort. But this morning was my monthly Workforce Development Program volunteer day; that meant going downtown, seeking out a parking space, and walking through the "urban jungle" (that's funny if you've ever been to downtown Jacksonville. It's really not very urban -- or urbane, for that matter, although several factions are trying to change that). Downtown doesn't have the benefit of the seabreeze, a huge mitigating factor around my house and east of it. Even with that, when I took my little dog out after work tonight, I felt like a couldn't get a breath. Oh, well. It is June, after all.

My big hope is that the weather hold out for us while we're on our family vacation. I don't care about the temperature or the percentage of humidity; I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that no hurricanes hit. We'll be on the Gulf Coast, and the hurricane impact tends to be greater there. In fact, the last time I visited the adorable beach bungalows where we'll be staying, Hurricane Charlie had hit just a few months before and several of the beaches and coastal walkways were closed. I'm not sure if I've described this before: The first time I went to my favorite beach in Sanibel, Bowman's Beach, I saw what I thought were sanddunes. As I got closer, I saw that they were actually huge mounds of thousands (millions?) of tiny perfectly-formed seashells! It was amazing. I can't wait to share that with my family.

I have two more big work days and then the "grand finale" of my current class. One week from tomorrow is my son's graduation, and his brothers, nieces, and dad will be there -- along with me, of course. I'll be front and center. After that, I'll come back to Jacksonville to get my new classes started, then we'll all go to our bungalows (except my ex-husband) and have a crazy-good time. My schedule of late has been killing me, but as I've said before (about other stressful work followed by awesome vacations) it only makes the time off more sweet. Nothing is as good as having my whole family together, so the work doesn't bother me that much. It just gets tedious. However, with my next paycheck I'll be able to pay off my credit card and the subsequent charges from our trip (or at least most of them). That feels pretty good. And swimming in the Gulf will definitely beat swimming through the air on my porch!