Dog days.

There's a certain quality to the sky during the summer in Texas that makes you feel as if you will never survive. It's bleached blue, beaten by clouds that offer no shade, and seems to stretch further than normal. Texas summers always remind me that I am living in the middle of a land mass, hours away from the continent's edge.

The beach. Oh, the sweet beach. I would give anything to hear the tide right now instead of the cicadas whirling in the late afternoon heat.

I have realized that I am going to have to move my after-work work out to before work, once and for all. I am not a morning person. The idea of lacing up my shoes for a 6:15 a.m. walk does not appeal to me. But I suppose it appeals more than walking in heat whose index is currently sitting at 102 degrees. And I just bargained with myself that I would walk tomorrow morning (my usual day of rest from exercise) instead of this afternoon. Anything sounds better than going back outside right now. We'll see how this goes.

This is the time of year where stores are switching to early fall clothes--boots, sweaters, jackets. Meanwhile, I am still looking for another bathing suit for our cruise (Did I mention we're taking a cruise? October, going to Cayman Islands, Jamaica, and Key West. Cannot wait.) or for another pair of shorts. I see back-to-school supplies and I want to feel relief that fall is around the corner, but all I really feel is annoyed by seasonal creep. Can't we still want to buy barbecues and umbrellas and sun screen?

We're only half-way through summer, after all.