Happiness is cool nites and dinner on the deck!

As my wife and I were preparing dinner last evening she looked at me and asked, “when was the last time we ate dinner at the kitchen table?”
Hmm.  Great question.  We traveled back on our calendar and realized that we started eating dinner on our deck when we returned from our vacation, which was 56 days ago.  Wow!  AND we live in Cleveland, Ohio, which is not exactly San Diego, weather-wise.  Fact is, while there’s been a near drought and my lawn is long ago brown, there’ve only been four days in the past two months when we did not go outside at dinner time to eat on our uncovered deck.  Once we decided to do “dinner and a movie” in our living room, and the other three times we went out to eat at restaurants where — you guessed it — we always sat on the patio.
I am sometimes sad about the state of my lawn… yet the optimist in my always looks for some good in every situation.  This run of mostly dry weather allowed Cheryl and I to use our beautiful deck as an extension of the house for most of the summer.  It pulled us out of the house to socialize with the neighbors (who were often dining on their own deck) and enjoy the sights and sounds of our neighborhood at play.  It’s been really lovely.
At this point, however, I am ready to move back indoors.  The remnants of Hurricane Gustav, colliding with spinoff weather from the many other tropical storms attacking the east coast, caused temperatures to drop back into the 50s at nite, and eating on the deck in a sweatshirt isn’t as much fun.
Ah, but guess what?!  Those 50-degree nites are FABULOUS for sleeping with the windows open and the crickets chirping.
Sometimes, the universe makes being an optimist so easy!
Happiness is cool nites, and dinner on the deck… 🙂