Where has all the summer gone?

In my head I have that horrible song Where Have All The Flowers Gone stuck as I contemplate where all the summer has gone. I really am rather certain that we haven’t had a summer this year. I think we’re in a perpetual state of spring. This morning I noticed that our maple tree in the backyard was sporting sprigs of crimson in the midst of it’s bright green leaves and I couldn’t help but sigh aloud. Despite the fact that autumn is indeed my favorite season I am not excited to meet it this year. Or at the very least, not yet. At work I feel much the same way. Despite the fact that I took only a week off all summer it seems that I haven’t accomplished a single summer project and that I have so much left to do to prepare for fall and the beginning of school and only a few weeks to finish everything. I have no idea how I will get everything done.

We’ve had non-stop rain since the beginning of July. Roads are washing away, lawns are completely underwater, and the sun hasn’t made an appearance for more than a day in weeks. The newspapers say that we can expect this weather through November. I keep thinking of our dank basement. While it usually plagues us with problems at the very least we usually see a reprieve during the months of July and August where we can open the windows, dry and air it out and give it a good cleaning. We have as much water in it now as we do during the spring thaw and fall rainy season. While I’ve had the number of a guy to call for an estimate to alleviate our water woes, I don’t think I want to call him any time soon. I imagine he’s in high demand and I’ll also hazard a guess that his rates may have increased to meet the laws of supply and demand.

I tried to mow the lawn last week in preparation of some people from work coming over. I have mowed in the rain before and am willing to if need be, but this was ridiculous. It took me two days between rain storms and I’m probably a walking case of West Nile Virus due to the incredible amount of mosquitoes I had to swat the entire time I mowed. The front yard close to the road was not mow-able due in combination to the heavy rains and road construction, plus some idiot that pulled off onto the soft shoulder a few weeks ago and then became stuck in our front yard leaving giant ruts. When I tried to mow the first strip (on a day that wasn’t raining mind you) myself and the mower disappeared into the grass and under about a foot of water. Needless to say I couldn’t get out of there fast enough and let the front patch of the lawn continue to grow. I’d rather have wildflowers than kill my lawnmower. It is not an underwater mowing device. I’m not even sure Sears makes such a model.

I am kidding of course. Please don’t visit the Sears website and look for it unless you have A LOT of free time on your hands.

But in the usual fashion, things could always be worse. The house two doors down has their entire lawn underwater and had town trucks there and a crew of friends and family trying to bail out the front yard. The following day they had sandbags against their house.

Things could always be worse…but I still feel jipped when it comes to summer. I don’t even know what season this is?