Oh happy day, it's cloudy and raining.

Not being sarcastic. It's dreary and rainy. By noon, two friends had already called to say hooray for me. They weren't being sarcastic either. They know I have summer seasonal affective disorder and that today's present darkness means I'm destined for cheerful productivity.

My tolerance for everything shortens as days get longer and the quality of sunlight becomes more insistent. Too much sunshine makes me tired, slightly nauseated, and bummed. I have to nap. I have to wait until early evening to putter around in my garden.

Years ago, I finally coated the windows of my home office and the deck slider doors with dark gray film. My deck furniture currently consists of a weathered wooden love seat. On it is a statue of the BVM embraced by tendrils of honeysuckle. Honeysuckle smells great at night and Mary by moonlight is a transcendent experience.

Come July, I’m usually very cranky because in addition to tolerating so much sunshine, I've had to endure endless jokes about vampires. I experience these as quite uncharitable, especially when coming from other Catholics. Don’t we get enough of these from folks who think transubstantiation is weird?