End of Summer/Rainy Day Musings

Well, summer is over, even if the calendar doesn't quite say so. All the signs are there, at least to me; Dog 'n Suds is closed, as well as as Avon Dairy Treat. Traffic has quadrupled on the way to work, especially at the Colorado Avenue Route 611 interchange on I-90. Plus, you can feel the weather changing.

Speaking of the weather, I've got some whining to do and I might as well do it here, since my spouse is probably getting tired of hearing it. This has got to have been the rainiest summer in Northeast Ohio that I can remember. As of Tuesday, I've mowed my lawn 28 times since April – the darned thing never stopped growing, thanks to all that wet stuff!

It rained during our camping trip in August, during our trip to Cedar Point that same month and the weather was generally crummy on Labor Day at Put-in-Bay during our annual visit. (At least it wasn't hot.)

Courtesy www.americanplasticequipment.com

It's funny, but as a kid in the 1960's I remember rain being a lot more rare. (A rainy day usually meant one thing: playing inside, specifically indoor games such as Monopoly. We had a few of the other popular games, such as Operation and Candyland, and even a few that would be frowned upon today as being too connected to the occult, such as Ka-Bala ( a fortune telling game) and the creepy Ouija board.)

I remember as a kid being genuinely surprised that a big cub scout outing at Mill Hollow was rained out.

Nevertheless, I just don't remember summer consisting of days and days of rain and lousy weather like what we've just endured. Is it just my nostalgic way of looking at things?