The Sixth of June…Now, Then, and Again…

Midday/Early Afternoon, Friday, June 6, 2025, Miami, Florida

The weather system that brought that rainy opening to meteorological summer earlier this week has moved on, and the Florida Travel Bureau can rest easy because it’s sunny, clear, and hot enough to go to the beach. (Ah, bikini weather!) I’d argue, though, that – climate change denialism be damned – Summer 2025 feels hotter than Summer 1985 (or even Summer 1975).

Consider:  As I write this shortly before midday, it is 87°F (31°C) under mostly sunny conditions. With a gentle 8 MPH (13 Km/H) southeasterly breeze and humidity at a sticky 72%, the heat index is 98°F (37°C). Even for someone who has lived in the Sunshine State for most of their life, that’s torrid weather this early in the season. And because hotter summer temperatures breed more, stronger tropical storms and hurricanes, it makes me fretful for Hurricane Season 2025, which kicked off earlier this week.

It’s hard to believe, folks, that on this date last year, I lived in rural New England, where the weather was, naturally, far different. On Thursday, June 6, 2024, Madison experienced partly sunny skies, and when I wrote an 80^th anniversary post about D-Day, I recorded a temperature of 73°F (22°C) and called it, ha, warm. (To be fair, though, I had just experienced my first – and, sadly, only – winter and spring in New Hampshire, so that mild by Florida standards temperature was relatively and enjoyably warm.)

One year ago today, I was just past the halfway point of writing Reunion: Coda, the second book in the Reunion Duology and my first novel. Two days earlier, on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, I had finished Chapter 17 and was in the process of revising it before moving on to the next chapter. I felt pleased that the story was coming together well, both from my perspective and that of my beta reader. At that time, I only had a few hints about what was to come later that summer, which made me wildly optimistic that I would finish the novel by September.

However, that didn’t happen. I didn’t complete the novel until the following spring, and not in the way I had anticipated.

I have scratched out some time to get started on Reunion: Coda. I’m stunned at how real it feels. I’m looking forward to continuing the story.

Scott, Hometown Herald blogger

Oh, well. At least Reunion: Coda is out on Amazon, and readers who are willing to purchase and read it can now do so. I’m rather proud of that novel, which was written during a tumultuous and confusing period in my life, yet it somehow turned out to be a good read. Yesterday, the guy who writes The Hometown Herald blog in Kentucky had this to say about Reunion: Coda:

I have scratched out some time to get started on Reunion: Coda. I’m stunned at how real it feels. I’m looking forward to continuing the story.

I’m genuinely grateful to Scott, the Kentucky blogger behind The Hometown Herald, for his kind words about Reunion: Coda. Knowing that the story has resonated with someone enough to feel “stunned at how real it feels” is deeply encouraging—especially given the tumultuous period during which it was written. So far, I’m quite pleased with the reception Reunion: Coda has garnered. It’s humbling to know that readers are finding meaning in a work that means so much to me.

Typically, I would mark today’s solemn anniversary of D-Day with a reflective post. However, as mentioned earlier, you can revisit last year’s 80th-anniversary reflection by following the link I provided in the earlier paragraph. I hope it serves as a thoughtful tribute to one of history’s pivotal moments.