I’m having a bit of a secret love affair this summer, but don’t worry. It’s nothing inappropriate. I’m just loving the weather.

It’s been pretty hot around here for the last few weeks. Vermonters who happily frolic in in subzero temperatures are wilting in the heat, just like my tomatoes. Not many people have central air conditioning around here, so everyone has a different strategy to beat the heat. Sleep in the coolest part of the house. Keep the shades drawn during the day. Get a window unit or two. At our house we have two portable air conditioners which you can kind of swivel around inside the house, and Matt is managing them with military precision, pointing them into this room and that room for maximum relief.

There is a whole lot of weather-related discussion around town. When the heat will break, what the high was yesterday and what it might be today. What the low might be tonight. How we’ll sleep. How we don’t know how people down south can stand it. How we look forward to the cool crisp days of fall. And I’m right there nodding along with everyone else. I don’t want to get into an argument about the relative merits of hot and cold everywhere I go. That is a losing argument around here.

But here’s my secret: I am loving this weather. I’m walking around town just soaking it in. I may have a glow by the time I get where I’m going, but so does everybody else. I’m sitting on the porch swing, appreciating even the smallest breezes. I’m eating breakfast in the hotter front part of the house, instead of the carefully cooled back. I’ve even worked from my porch a few times.

Now, I’m not crazy. I’m sleeping in the back of the house. And I’m obviously not in favor of global warming and I do have concerns about the health of the planet. But speaking just for my personal happiness, I’d take this weather right through September if I could. I wait for so long to feel completely warm (January, February, March, April, and yes, even May) that it’s going to take more than a few hot days or weeks to dampen my enthusiasm. My goal is to soak up as much of this steamy sunshine as I can, because this is Vermont, and winter is coming. And it will certainly going to chase me back indoors and leave me longing for a bright, hot, even slightly uncomfortable day in July. So I don’t want to waste those while they’re here. I better take a walk.