A pedestrian walks in the rain through the Christian Science Center Plaza.
(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)
Kathleen Hennrikus
OK, I admit it: I love this weather!
A pedestrian walks in the rain through the Christian Science Center Plaza.
(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)
WHEN YOU’RE a member of a hidden minority, you always feel like you are the only one. So I will take a deep breath and say it loud and say it proud: I loved June’s weather. No, I’m not from Seattle; I’m homegrown and proud about that as well. But for me this rainy weather is like a tonic to the system, refreshing and effervescent.
Every day that doesn’t produce 90 degrees and a dew point of 70 is a gift. Every night I can sleep with the windows open and not hear the whine of an air conditioner is a relief.
Hot weather saps my body and soul, leaving me limp and grouchy. I stop buying baking supplies in May - I’m not going to turn on the oven no matter how much I want a decent chocolate chip cookie. How foolish is it to have a backyard cookout when it’s 95 degrees? The last thing I want when I get out of a hot kitchen is to stand around a grill that’s shooting flames into the sky.
The TV weather people shake their heads and tsk tsk about not being able to give us sunshine - if I counted how many times I’ve heard “Don’t shoot the messenger’’ I’d scream - but I am secretly thrilled to see clouds on the forecast for the week ahead. I bask in this weather; let others complain rain makes them limp and grouchy. All too often summer roars in - winter one day, summer the next. We complain about no spring - straight from parkas to tank tops. Think of this year as having an elongated spring.
Times are tough. Unemployment is expected to rise, houses and 401(k)s are worth a lot less than they were a year ago, and who knows when that will get better. Weather is a great leveler. Conversations in libraries and coffee shops in Lawrence are pretty much the same as those in Newton; everyone wonders when the sun will shine. Same conversations when there’s a blizzard. “Can you believe this?’’ When we talk about the weather, we don’t have to dwell on wars or bad economic times. Even global warming seems like a specter at this moment.
Sure, folks who depend on “good’’ weather are having a rough stretch. But for every empty parking spot at Old Silver Beach, there’s a full lot at Woods Hole Science Aquarium. The dog days of summer are still before us, with plenty of days for folks to spend outside slapping at bugs and applying sunscreen.
Cheer up; we New Englanders are made of tough stuff. Pretty soon I’ll be haunting places with air conditioning, planning trips to the grocery store to hang out in the freezer aisle, and you’ll be on the beach - complaining about the heat.
Kathleen Hennrikus, a former member of the Globe staff, is a freelance writer. 
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