Humidity

 

Downpours were the order of the day for the first half of my trip. This is in my parent's neighborhood in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

I just got back from visiting family in Tennessee for the Independence Day holiday. I keep having these impulses to move back to Tennessee, mostly because I miss everyone, but I don't miss the weather. The temperatures were in the upper 90s F and high humidity. It was miserable. I'd forgotten how impossible it is to do anything outdoors there in summer without becoming completely covered in sweat. Fortunately I'd brought almost too many changes of clothing.

We fit in fireworks between rainfall events. It was a hot, humid evening beneath the overcast.

When I'm in Flagstaff, I'm grateful to live here and do not want to move, but I miss my family. The outdoor lifestyle here can't be matched in Tennessee, even though it is a green state. Here I walk, run, or ride a bicycle straight out of my garage onto roads and paths that are relatively safe to travel. In Tennessee, you typically must get in a car and drive to a place that is safe for those activities.

When I lived there, I found things to do outdoors, but I recall not being able to do many things for much of the summer. This is one of the reasons I enjoyed whitewater kayaking so much when I lived there before. It was often so hot that being in the water was the only reasonable option.

Eventually I expect to move closer to family. As I approach within a decade of my planned retirement, I contemplate how I want things to play out, but so far the process is marked by indecision.