Do you think of New Hampshire as a cold place? Much of the year it is, but this week temperatures reached 103 F.

It seems like the colder the winter is the hotter the following summer will be, at least for a week or so. Weather in NH can be unpredictable and uncomfortable.

No sympathy? I don’t blame you, it does get a lot hotter in other places in the world, but usually people who live in hot places are better prepared. Here, very few homes have central air conditioning, especially not the old ones like mine.

I grew up in Florida where heat and humidity are a way of life, but it never bothered me. There was always a breeze off the ocean, and often summer afternoons were cooled by a rain shower. There was always air conditioning, a friend’s pool, or a thousand other things to do to escape the heat that we were so accustomed to.

Here on the side of a hill in NH where the hazy western sun beats through my living room, kitchen & dining room windows, I melt into immobility. The breeze is hot, the humidity stings. The only escape is my car, the mall or the bookstore. Even the stores are warmer than usual though, and eventually I have to come home.

hot breeze

I lay on the floor in front of a fan and read a book. I tell everyone I’m not turning on the oven and dinner will be late. No one cares as the heat sucked away their appetite. As the sun approaches the horizon I think about what food I can make that’s quick and cool. Perhaps we can survive on ice cream & Popsicle’s? Even the cats are crying and panting.

Then I remember the many summers when we weekended at the island on the lake and every time it would rain. It would be cold enough at night in the middle of July or August to light a fire in the fireplace, and barely warm enough in the day to take a swim. It was fun anyway, we went boating, fishing, hiking & played board games and listened to the waves beat the shore at night. Those were the summers after a fairly mild winter.

The lake house is gone now, my dad is gone, the summer visits to the lake are gone except in our memories. We continue on, enduring the heat or cold, creating our lovely life the best way we can, with patience, love and hope, caring about each other and the life we create together.