Summertime

I guess there's no more denying it: summer is here. Yesterday the mercury climbed up to near 90 degrees and today it's supposed to soar past that. Chicago forecaster Tom Skilling even predicts that today will be "2006's hottest day to date." Bizarrely, that sounds kind of crude, doesn't it? As if I were talking about a top-notch Trixie (see second definition) instead of an early summer scorcher.

In any case, it's 74 already here at 7 a.m., but the light is beautiful. We're coming up on the longest day of the year, which is easy to lose track of (but shouldn't be for me, since it's also my brother's birthday.) It's at this point that I come full circle from where I usally am 6 months from now, when I'm cursing the fact that it's pitch black at 4 p.m. : do we really need so much light? I like a 7 p.m. sunset just as much as the next guy, but beyond that, my circadian rhythm is ready for some darkness. Plus, more daylight hours just means more hours of burning hot sun searing in the sky.

Anyway, I was inspired to take these shots before the heat became oppressive. At least the flowers seem to get a kick out of the strong sun and the even stronger humidity.

Happy sweating...