Autumn in August

For over a decade, I have exclaimed my love for Pittsburgh weather.  Fabulous spring and fall temperatures, hot sunny summers, and mild winters.

But for the past two years or so, Mother Nature has been messing with me.

Take summer 2009 for example.  It felt like fall weather for the entire summer.  We had central air-conditioning and we seriously only turned it on twice.  My summer tan was literally non-existent.  As someone who is self-diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder, summer 2009 made me sad because heat and sun in the summer make me happy and that was completely lacking.  But compare that to summer 2010, and we basically had our air-conditioner running the entire months of June and July, and most of early August.  Hot, humid, sunny weather - but so much so that I felt like I was suffocating if I laid out it in too long. Our electricity bills were through the roof, and totally not helpful to our attempts to budget our money.

We all remember this past winter, right?  Horrible, horrible amounts of snow.  I don't mind cold weather.  But I like snow in very small doses and we did NOT get small doses of snow.  Not even one big dose of snow.  Instead, multiple large, oversized, SUPER-sized even.... doses of snow.  I hated it.

I some point in mid-July, I actually said to myself, "Well, I guess I can't say that I love Pittsburgh weather anymore."  Because the one thing that I loved was that it was fairly predictable, and that has gone out the winter the past 18 months or so.

But then things like this happen:

And I forgive Mother Nature for messing with me. 

It feels like autumn in August, and it feels amazing.  Bright sun without the suffocating humidity. Throw in the occasional overnight rain shower for the plants and water sources, and I would be willing to state - for the record - that Pittsburgh would be the most perfect place to live in the world.