Our First Georgia Summer

You know that saying about not knowing you were unhappy until you were happy?  Well, I never realized how spoiled I was regarding weather until I moved to Southern Georgia from Southern California. Southern California has the most moderate and predictable weather in all of the United States.  I kept my doors and windows open to the fresh air for much of the day, evenings, and many nights eight months out of the year.  I never thought I would adjust my life for half a year based on black flag weather warnings associated with heat indexes over 100 degrees, thunderstorms and lightening, tides, insects, and alligators but yet here I am.

As I get ready to post new products I have to have flattering photographs.  If you saw a video of me trying to get those photos you'd laugh out loud but not in front of me.  If it's not the humidity which fogs my camera lens (see above) it's the bugs in the grass that seem to bother no one but me.  The dogs lounge around in it quite lazily while I am slapping my legs, arms and back without mercy & am using language I am ashamed to admit to as I try and talk to myself about maintaining discipline and composure so I can get what I need and get back inside to my air conditioned fortress.  Despite all this complaining, I like it here.  The people are lovely and the pace of life is slower.

What I've found interesting about extreme weather is the respect you begin to have in order to co-exist.  In California, I never gave a thought to the tides, for example, but here I do.  If I paddleboard in the marsh I must do so at high tide or I cannot get out or in as the case may be.  Worse, I might get stuck out there with no way to get out (or in).  Same in the ocean here but for different reasons.  A paddleboarder can simply carry her board over a sandbar but the incoming tide has such a strong current that one would do well to respect it.