10 Minutes of Sun

Weekends have been sad for Matthew. We're right smack in the middle of what has to be the strangest summer weather I have ever encountered here in the OC. For a few weeks it was cloudy and gloomy, day and night. Then for a few weeks it was cloudy and gloomy until about 3:00, when the sun came out and the wind kicked up. Then it was blazing hot, day and night, for a week. Then the clouds rolled back in, and we're back in the gloom. These days it burns off around maybe 1:00. Unfortunately that's just in time for Ben's nap. I'm hesitant to complain, because last time I whined about the gloom I was transported to the surface of the sun. But seriously--the average high in OC is about 80-85 this time of year. All summer it's been 65 or 95. 65 is too cold for the beach, 95 is too hot (yes, there is a too hot for the beach--it's the temperature at which sitting in the direct sunlight on hot sand starts to boil you and you no longer have fun).

So...back to Matthew. The heat wave went from a Monday to a Saturday. Since that Saturday was Ben's birthday party, and those six days are pretty much the only ones during the entire summer that the sun has been out before Ben's nap, Matthew has very literally not had a sunny summer day on which to go to the beach. I have a very real fear that he will shrivel up and simply dissolve into the gloom. But alas, alack, we've just had to go to the beach anyway. So the day after B's birthday we tried to go to Pirate's Cove. It's a lot of effort, but (I think) worth it. Sadly, when we got there not only were the clouds hanging around (they'd been gone at our place), but there was trash all over the beach. Not cool, teenagers. Not cool. Fortunately Big Corona is still on our list of favorites, so we just climbed back over the rocks and played at the main beach. It was cold, but we still had fun. Seriously, though, the sun needs to come out. NOW.

I don't know how land-locked mid-westerners survive without occasionally standing at the edge of the continent and putting their feet in the ocean. God is incredible.