It's here! August is the reason I hate summer, not because summer is almost over, but because I feel trapped inside. I do not tolerate heat well, and haven't been able to since I was 21. That summer, my then husband and I took a trip to the far east and I had my first encounter with sun poisoning. Blisters, and just plain being sick from the heat by sunning just a few short hours at the hotel pool in Bangkok. Sunblocks were not in vogue, and skin cancers were not highly talked about back then like they are now.

Skin cancer runs in my family. Both of my parents have had bouts with it, fortunately not the deadly melanoma, but some fairly serious carcinomas. The last one removed from my mother's face changed her look so much I was startled the first time I saw her after that surgery. I monitor every mole on my body, have had some removed. Fortunately, they have all been benign.

Apart from worrying about skin cancer, I just don't feel well when I come in from the high heat and humidity. A touch of nausea, light headed, slightly dizzy...I spend as little time outside as necessary. I even find it difficult to breathe in this weather, and I'm more than thankful for air conditioning.

We've had a fairly mild summer this year, but this week it is supposed to be in the high nineties, and it is probable that we will even get into triple digits. Dew points are climbing, and with them comes the really oppressive heat where 90 feels like 105. Funny thing about all of this is I grew up in Florida, and spent my summers at the beach. I always tanned easily, and rarely would burn. Now, I'm considering retiring somewhere like Maine just to escape the heat. I don't know how you folks in places like Dallas and Florida can do it.

That light at the end of the tunnel is autumn, and living through the dog days of summer means that autumn is not all that far away.