How was your weekend? Despite the scattered showers, it was a nice weekend here. The nautical mile, two blocks from me, starts amping up full speed as of this weekend. With three of the most popular bars being right across from me, it gets very noisy. Unfortunately, the music blends between them so you can’t always make out one song from another. I am always happy at the start of the season. I love the hustle and bustle of the nautical mile. By about mid July, I start counting down until it’s over. The ridiculous drunk people going back to their cars, screaming in the streets definitely becomes tiresome fast. The horns of the cars trying to get down the streets are so annoying. The worst are the motorcycles. I love motorcycles, but they are loud. Many riders love to show off the power and sound of their bikes and it drives the dogs crazy. That in turn drives me crazy. So as much as I love the beginning of the summer season in the busiest part of the south shore, I hate it soon enough.

The warmer season is coming. I’ve been in hibernation all winter and spring trying to recoup and regain strength. Now I am doing better and I’m facing summer. The months were I usually hibernate because I don’t do well in the heat. I’ve had my windows open with my fans on full speed. It has been sufficient. Yet I’ve noticed humidity has been rising despite the rain showers. The humidity I think is worse than the heat. Actually it just makes the heat worse. I am finally making some headway in recovering strength and now I have heat. Even with the AC on, it just gets into my bones. Last year, I started PT walking further than I ever did. I walked almost 2 full hallways in my building. By the end of the summer, I was barely able to walk my hallway. One time I actually needed to bring my wheelchair out because I couldn’t get back to my door. This was before my hospitalizations. M

y old therapist said every season change he saw a difference in my symptoms. Didn’t matter if it was spring to summer or fall to winter. There was always a change of some kind. Eventually I’d even out. I never came close to walking two hallways again, so I’m not sure about that theory. I know summer is fearful for most people with multiple sclerosis. Heat exacerbates MS symptoms. If you don’t have MS you can search that all over the internet. I think the heat exacerbates most people with any chronic disease.

I can’t do much about the weather changes. I can say I’ve successfully managed myself through 50 summer seasons so far. MS or not, I still like what the summer brings. I like the nautical mile when it first starts. I love watching the boats in the water. I appreciate the longer days with sunlight. I am grateful for the invention of AC. I will countdown, eventually, until September comes. Yet today, I’m happy with the sunshine.