Hot weather leads to more time indoors

I know when life give you lemons, you're supposed to make lemonade, but I'm struggling to make something good out of the hot weather.

I'm elated the oppressive heat and lack of rain have combined to slow the growth of my lawn. I was getting tired of cutting the grass on Saturday only to have it looking like it had not been mowed in weeks by Tuesday.

I do wish my farming friends could receive some rain on their fields and pastures, but it does not bother me a bit to see my lawn wilting away.

What does bother me, though, is it's too hot for me to go fishing during the time normally spent mowing the lawn.

My boat is too small and slow to take a high-speed ride down the river to cool off when the heat becomes unbearable during a fishing trip. As hot as it has been this week, I'm not even sure if the fish are willing to bite for anglers willing to brave the heat.

Wading a creek is normally a good way to cool off while fishing during the summer, but low water levels in many creeks I like to wade have hampered fishing. Even if the fish were biting, the levels are so low in some places only my feet would be cool.

Another drawback to wade fishing during a drought is that in their search for water, snakes tend to congregate around creeks. I'm not terrified of snakes, but looking down to see a snake within striking distance is not a good thing for a man with a bum heart like myself.

I grew up in a home that didn't have air conditioning and never thought twice about spending most of the day outdoors even when the temperature was around 100 degrees.

I don't know if its because I'm a lot older or if I've just gotten soft, but I can't stand to spend very much time outside when the heat and humidity are high.

There's a lot of Saturdays I had rather be fishing, hiking or bird watching than stuck inside watching reruns on TV, but the heat makes it miserable to spend much time outside.

Hopefully this week will wind up being the hottest of the summer and temperatures will start to moderate.

But those cooler temperatures could cause my lawn to grow once again. If that happens, I will be cutting grass instead of going fishing on the weekend.

Sometimes a guy just can't win for losing.

I can hardly wait for winter to get here. You don't have to cut grass in the winter, there's not a lot boat traffic on the lakes and the fishing can be awesome.

I just hope I don't melt from the heat before it finally gets cold enough to enjoy the outdoors.

Dennis Sherer can be reached at 740-5746 or dennis.sherer@timesdaily.com.