Your Summer is My Winter

So...very...hot...

What’s the best thing about waking up to 80 degrees and 42 percent humidity? Air conditioning!

Grateful is merely the first thing you feel when you consider air conditioning. We could not live without it here in Phoenix – no way, no how.

There is barely covered parking at major shopping centers, which shocked me when I first moved here 25 years ago. Shade! We need shade! I thought. But what we had in abundance was land and building large sprawling parking lots made more sense. Admittedly, in the new centers, you’ll see a covered parking structure, so someone is thinking and willing to spend the extra money.

At the local high schools, they are building covered parking structures over existing lot spaces and then installing solar panels on top. How smart is that? I don’t know much at all about the “race” to figure out the profitability of solar power, but you would think that Arizona would be at the forefront of that one. Sunshine all the time! Cloudy days are lovely here in the summer. It’s still hot, maybe 90 degrees, but that’s so much better than 105 and the sun isn’t beating down on you.

With all of this heat going on around me, why am I still knitting like the wind? Because this is our winter, people. We are inside most of the time, the air conditioner is turned on, sometimes it feels like a lovely, cool winter’s day, especially when there’s cloud cover. I make a cup of hot tea and pretend. Sometimes I watch Christmas movies. Usually, I catch up on my summer shows and old movies. I knit and knit and knit and don’t worry about what time of year it is.

It's lovely to be inside.

For me, I need to knit ahead for the classes I’m teaching and I’m already planning my winter schedule and samples, so summer has always been a great time to get down to knitting business. And gifts? Do I ever have time to knit Christmas gifts? Now I think small. I have this great pattern for very small, ornament-size, knitted mittens that look fabulous in Malabrigo or Manos worsted. I’m also trying mochimochi for the first time and those could be terrific little smile raisers for my friends.

So today, before I head off to the knitting store, I will knit a bit and continue making progress on the many projects I have going all at once. Hey, that’s just how I roll. And if you’re starting your day or even if you’re in the middle of it, don’t forget to take a few minutes to stretch. Get up and touch your toes, lean to the left, lean to the right, get on the floor with the dog and cat and stretch that inner thigh muscle that I don’t know the name of but is getting shorter and shorter every year. Stretching will keep you healthy and well and knitting forever, right?