Perfect summer day

Finally, after a wet winter, a wet spring, a wet early summer and a beastly hot June, the weather has turned. Today, July 8, 2018 in Pittsburgh was about as perfect a midsummer day as anyone could hope for. Temperatures in the low 80s, no humidity and a sky so deep and drenching blue it seemed you could swim into it until eternity.
I took a long afternoon walk under a sky empty of clouds, split only by the contrail of a distant jet. At some point, I heard the sound that divides summer in two, the deep-pitched burr of a cicada. May and June are such quiet months, marked only by the chirps of young spring birds and the flickers of fireflies. When the cicadas start to sing, you know summer is into its richest time, with daylight lasting at least until 9 and kids playing in the street until dark.
Pretty soon, the days will get shorter and the sunlight longer. For now, we are saturated in shadows and blue.