15 September 2020
Two days in a row! I completed my walk, yoga and laps in the pool for the second consecutive time and was even able to do my complete set of pool laps instead of the half routine I’ve been doing since the surgery. My arm doesn’t feel great but it doesn’t feel bad. Looks like I may get over 90% function back in that arm.
Even better, there’s a noticeable drop in the humidity levels outside. I completed my walk this morning and there were actual dry spots on my t-shirt. Usually, when I complete my walk, the humidity is so bad I need to wring it out and hang it to dry. Ah! Fall is in the air and we are headed for 80˚F temperatures!
It was nice enough outside that I even did some weeding in the front yard. The area where I have some rain lilies was being taken over by dollar weed. Dollar weed is a real pest in lawns here. It’s actually the genus Hydrocotyl and is a semi-aquatic plant. Most people get it in their lawns when they over water. That wasn’t my problem. The problem was the torrential rains we’ve had since mid-May.
The good news is the rain lilies really bloom after torrential downpours so I’ve had several blooming periods with these this year. The dollar weed has underground stems (rhizomes) and they are a pain to dig out of the soil as they intermingle with the bulbs of the rain lilies. If you don’t remove the rhizomes, they just keep growing so hand digging is the only option. In any case, it felt good to get outside and do some work without melting in the heat.
South Florida is known as a subtropical climate. Anything between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer is considered tropical climate. The tropic of Cancer lies at 23.5˚ North latitude and Fort Lauderdale is at 26.1˚ North. A degree in latitude is approximately 69 miles, so my house is approximately 180 miles from the Tropic of Cancer. Key West is approximately 110 miles from the Tropic of Cancer.
I’m rambling but my point is a subtropical climate pretty much stays green all year and our growing season is 12 months. It’s more lush during our rainy season from mid-May until the end of September. I once had a friend from Memphis come stay during December and his first comment after he got off the plane was “It’s so green!”
We have to seasons here: hot and hotter. Weeds can take over in a few days time and you are always cutting things back and hauling it out to the curb for bulk trash pick up.
Only Alaska has any real arctic temperatures in the U.S. I’ve experienced cold weather before and some of the coldest weather I’ve experienced has been in Mississippi. It’s a wet cold. As a kid I remember ponds freezing over and you were able to skate on them. We had no ice skates but leather soled shoes worked really well. The first and only time I put on ice skates was when the Coliseum in Jackson started an ice rink. I discovered at that time I have very weak ankles.
To explain Mississippi cold, a guy I worked with in the Bureau of Land Management in Miles City, Montana told me the coldest he had ever been in his life was Camp Shelby near Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In Mississippi, you can make snow balls because it is a wet snow. In Montana, it’s dry powder. A -20˚F is perfectly acceptable weather to walk about in as long as the wind is not blowing in Montana. However, you quickly learn to never touch metal unless you have gloves on.
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I’ve been in deeper snow but it was at Havre de Grace, Maryland. Dad was stationed nearby at Aberdeen Proving Grounds getting ready to ship overseas to Korea. We lived in a trailer that was probably part of army housing at the time. The main source of heat in that trailer was an oil fired heater. When you lit the heater, it would start moaning and groaning and I swear it started jumping around on the floor. I called it the bucking heater – like a bronco. I was scared to death of that thing and insisted on going outside until the heater warmed up enough to quit the noise and disturbance.
It snowed so much that year that Archie and I were running across a field. We had forgotten there was a drainage ditch and we both plunged out of sight when we ran over it. Both of our heads were below the snow level of the field.
Dad helped me build a snowman. Archie, being the sweet, lovable brother he was knocked it down. I was really, really upset and cried for a few days. Obviously, from the photo, I got over it.
Well, maybe I never did get over him knocking it over.
My only real adult time in the snow was at Governor’s Island New York when I was in the Coast Guard. I remember one day on barracks duty the Officer of the Day hauled us out of the warm barracks to shovel snow to form a square snow berm. He then filled the square with water to form an ice rink. A couple of times after that I had to shovel snow as part of my detail duty and I quickly learned why so many people die of heart attacks shoveling snow in winter. It’s very strenuous.
Florida continues to see a decrease in the number of new cases. Today in both Broward and Miami-Dade county, people protested the closure of bars. I guess they want them to open up so they can get hammered while not social distancing. Booze protects you from Covid, doesn’t it? There are several areas that are notorious for outbreaks of Covid. Nursing homes, prisons, meat processing plants, college campuses with their parties, and bars. We can now add Trump’s political rallies back in the mix. I can only assume those protesting about the bars feel slighted that Florida is no longer breaking records for new cases and want to up the cases higher and higher to where we are number 1 again.
Stay tuned and stay safe.
