The Anatomy of A Summer Day in Mississippi

These Lazy Waning Days of Summer follow a pattern.

Sometime between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m., Gretchen and I head out for our morning walk under a cloudless sky. It’s so gorgeous, and so blue! Make no mistake, it’s already hot. No matter how early we leave, Gretchen always looks like she’s on the Bataan Death March on the leg back. “You’re the one who always wants to go!” I remind her.

If I’m doing yard work or housekeeping, I’ll start it now. I’ll also think about checking email. But must first put in my 20 minute crusade against dog hair.

Between 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., dark clouds will roll in. All this time, rolling thunder will fill the neighborhood. I can never tell if it’s thunder, or just neighbors wheeling in their trash cans. But the sound is too close, and it can’t be our next door neighbor Barbara taking in her trash cans. She’s always prompt about that, and garbage was collected three days ago. Sometimes, I think it’s just some truant kids horsing around, wheeling each other about in trash cans. I’ve never actually seen this.

Around 2 p.m., a huge downpour may or may not occur. It could last 10 minutes or it could rain about an hour. Either way, if you’re stuck in it, or if you have to run from the store or the house to your car without an umbrella, you may as well walk in the shower with your clothes on.

About 6 p.m., the sun is shining bright, there’s a nice breeze, and you’d never know of the preceding thunderstorm warning or sweltering mid-morning heat, if the frogs didn’t tell you with their post-rain song.

It’s pretty. It’s sounds like, “Mweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeggggggghhhhhh…….. Mweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeggggggggghhhhhh….”

This past week has been different though! The days are getting cooler, almost comfortable(!) maxing out in the mid-high 80's. The clouds are out of control cool. The other day, I saw mounds upon mounds of cauliflower heads, mushroom caps, Mickey Mouse waving, and Jerry Garcia, all in one sky. Last night, there was a dark cloud cover that ended short of the horizon, and the sunset's orange-pink beams were shooting up from below the clouds, below the horizon even, and creating almost a rock-concert lighting effect, with these hot pink spotlight beams penetrating up into the dark blue-gray cloud cover in several places from several directions. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Even if I had a camera, besides the one on my phone, it wouldn't have done the moment justice.

Of all the places I've lived, of all the awesome nature I've seen, there is nothing quite so pretty as the pastel palette left in the sky after a Mississippi sunset.