Christmas (weather) in July

I know this: our hot pepper plants aren't enjoying the cool summer we're having in Metro Detroit.

But fie on them.

The mercury hasn't scraped much past the mid-80s so far, and we're in mid-July.

I couldn't be happier.

I don't do well with the heat. The pepper plants do, however, and ours have been struggling to bear fruit, but like I said, fie on them. I can buy hot peppers at the market, although there is a charm to growing your own.

But if that's the trade off---store-bought hot peppers in exchange for summer days in which I can breathe without an oxygen mask, then I'll take it and run.

Normally by now, we would have suffered through oppressive heat, with temps in the high-80s and low-90s, with enough humidity to curl you from hair to toe.

But this year?

So far, so good.

Cool evenings, enabling you to sleep with the windows open, and is there anything better than breathing in fresh night air as you slumber?

Pleasant daytime temps, which don't mandate the use of air conditioning 24 hours a day. I love A/C---I think it was a great invention. But being in it too much makes me feel like I'm living in a plastic bubble and the world outside is so close yet so far.

Now, I do feel for the swimming pool owners out there.

We don't own a pool anymore, but the year we bought ours, in 1998, we were swimming in it (comfortably) in mid-May, shortly after it was installed.

My, has the climate changed.

Despite the aforementioned oppressive heat, those days haven't really started until well into June in recent years, so the pool owners' swimming season has been shrinking steadily.

I saw some pools with their winter covers still on, as recently as two weeks ago!

So you own a pool nowadays and you're spending God knows how much money on electricity for the pump and chemicals for the water, and you can't even dip your toes in the stinking thing---until Independence Day.

I also haven't heard the ice cream truck very much this summer.

But that's still collateral damage in my book.

I'm enjoying the heck out of daytime temps in the mid-to-high 70s and evening lows in the upper-50s.

I'm basking in the low humidity and the ability to take in a deep breath of air without nearly passing out.

I have no idea how much longer this can last. I keep bracing myself for a heat wave.

And despite the lack of heat thus far, I'm sure I'll still grumble and bitch the first day the thermometer scrapes 90 degrees.

But until then, I'm enjoying Christmas in July.

How about you?