Hazy Shade of Summer

Happy Official First Day of Summer to everyone out there NOT in Florida. We started seeing 70+ days (aka, Beach Days) in February, so summer technically started for us sometime after St Patrick's Day. Then came Spring Break (yes, we do have it here!); then the last full weekend of April, the official Opening of the Beaches (as if they hadn't already been crowded for a month!); and June 1, the official start to Hurricane Season.

Hurricane Season tends to mark the end of Wildfire Season and the beginning of Monsoon Season, when every day at precisely 3:30 pm we get 15-30 minutes of straight downpour. Unfortunately, we were warned by our friendly neighborhood meteorologist that this June will be unusually dry, which is terribly unfortunate as just over the state line, we have this little guy:

Photo credit and mini-shoutout to Terry, who I am pretty sure reads this blog and is hoping for a dry season for good shrimp (as soon as this mess is out!)

Basically, on a day like today, you should see sunny skies over a long road leading to the beach, and a little glimmer of shiny water in the middle of this picture. Instead...

This isn't fog. It looks like fog, but it smells like a campfire. And you can't even see the stoplight at the bottom of the bridge, much less the beach. According to Jacksonville.com, there are 157 fires burning in a 50 mile radius, and it looks like it's going to get worse.  Everyone please pray for our firefighters, and if you're local, try not to burn anything.

And by the way, Jacksonville is still awesome. Just kinda gross right now. Seasons change pretty quickly in Florida if you look around enough to notice, and before long it'll be monsoon, beach, or football season.