The Dog Days of Summer

These days in Grand Rapids the humidity has been approximately 99.9999999999999%. Yesterday, John had to reconcile this fact with the need to go on a 14 mile run for his marathon training plan. Well, he did his usual and left in the early morning hours when it was still endurable outside. I was awake drinking my coffee and staring at the condensed moisture on the outside of our windows by the time he got home, and I was curious how he was surviving since I had felt like fainting just going out to get the paper! He said he resisted great urges to drop back to a walking pace and finished the 14 mile run in good time. He left his favorite running shirt somewhere along the way for us to pick up later because it began to weigh about 5 pounds as he ran.

Soon we left for the prayer meeting downtown at our church, but John did not forget to drive by that old, wet t-shirt with the ripped-off sleeves which he had discarded along the road. He found it about 4 miles from our house, lying there in its water-logged state next to a trailer park. Woe be to him who picks that up, I said jokingly as we pulled over to the gas station next door. I was excited when John went over to get his running treasure, but I told him to please not set it on my purse. I forgot to tell him to wring it out before he brought it in the van.

We went to the prayer meeting and prayed for the people who would come to our service tonight and for the band and for the pastors and for the guy who came the first week and sat under the tree and for the weather... Sharon calls these the "dog days" of summer and I love it when she says her little sayings like this because it reminds me of Oma Boyer.

Eventually, the sky could not hold that dreadful humidity in anymore. We welcomed the rain, thunder, and lightning to cool things off for a brief spell. But alas, the day turned hot and humid again because these are, after all, the dog days, and we went down to our church on the Grand River at 6pm. The air was thick and hot and stagnant, and muffled the notes that the musicians had lofted up. Feeling a lot like that sopping wet t-shirt, we sang praises to God, and now I know how much He still treasures us.