On Sunday, when I took this picture in Toledo, we were walking around the Old West End in short sleeves, and we came back to a week in Chicago as heavy and sunny as any in July. The last few days have been really warm, midsummer warm, and damp. People in my office come back from lunch declaring it’s beautiful out!  We love it!  You should go outside!

Of course, I think they’re nuts. I prefer my autumn days crisp and snappy – sweater weather, not flip-flop weather.  When there’s rain, I like it to be a steady downpour, cold and heavy, soaking into the ground and helping the trees unburden themselves of leaves.
I don’t like my autumn days all hot and muggy and with the threat of a thunderstorm at the end to freak me out. Didn’t we have enough of that drama in, oh, August?  It feels wrong.

Now we are in the midst of more drama.  The high today was 78 and tonight it will bottom out at 39.  This weird weather system, by the way, is on its way east to join up with Hurricane Sandy and a full moon tide. Look out, friends around New York City.

This is why I wanted to share this picture with you: the lost keys, lying on that stone.  All of this weather feels wrong, because it is wrong.  We’ve lost the keys to the way it should feel.

And you people who don’t believe in climate change: it’s weather, not religion.