Fifty-Eight.

Days since rain here in 27408: 1. We picked up a nice .15" yesterday early morning right around sunrise, about enough to get the ground wet, or almost wet. Days since significant rain, however: 12, or 20, depending upon whether one wants to count the third-ish of an inch we got right at the end of July. Other folks are doing better than we are, even right around here, but as for the immediate local area here around the ANYLF WeatherDeck, things are dry, dry, dry, dry, dry. I've quit mowing the lawn. I've sort of quit doing everything, except a half-hearted occasional amount of tomato maintenance. They want rain for Wednesday. Maybe. I'm not so sure.

It's nearly crisp out there, and still cool enough to walk the dog even at noon, but this is not fall. This is what comes before fall. This is something left to dry on the line. Now: Everything about this would still be beautiful, even the low, low humidity, even the crackling leaves starting to fall out of the trees, even the yellowing dogwoods, even the fifty-eight degrees we're meant to be granted overnight, if it had just not quit raining altogether. In the last thirty days we haven't even had an inch of rain. And we'd been doing so well.

Hey, August. For those of you just tuning in, it is, and remains, August. Don't let the pleasantness fool you.