Summer's Late and I Can Wait

Sunday and it’s the last day of May.  I pulled the kitchen calendar from the wall and sat down at the kitchen table to flip the page to June and add dates from my iPhone calendar.  The back door is wide open, kitty gate in place.  Jazzmine preens and watches every moving creature in the back yard, but her kitten days are long gone. She never attempts to leap out.  Not sure she could at her age and weight even if she wanted to.

I am amazed that this old place is still so cool inside when I know it’s a very warm 80-something outside when I took the trash to the alley just now. (if this is global warming, i'll take it)

Perhaps the daily rain storm is a contributing factor, but I also know that old buildings built before there was air conditioning were designed for air flow.  I have windows open in the back bedroom and the dining room and the kitchen door, which all face west.  I have the door and windows to the screened in balcony open wide as well.  That, the ceiling fans and a few strategic box fans have been keeping it very comfortable in here.  The minute I open the kitchen door in the morning, the air moves through the place at an event quicker and cooler pace. 

I love living on the second floor – I can keep windows and balcony open year round.  The only thing I do close when night falls or I head out to run errands is the kitchen door.  

However many days I can delay cranking up the central air, I’ll cherish.  I hate shutting myself off from nature and the outside world – the trains passing through in the wee hours; the birdsong and chattering squirrels that wake me in the morning; reading on the balcony loveseat; sitting at my small bistro tablejournaling, sipping and watching the life ebb and flow on the street below.