Reflections from 2010 And Summer

So little weekend, too much week. I hate Sunday evenings. I think (god forbid) that I am ready to retire. Not because I am old, although I absolutely am! But more because I really don't like working any longer. I want to play more, enjoy my house more, my yard, my anything and everything. Work gets in the way of other more pleasurable pastimes. Unfortunately, finances, the economy the general state of the world, dictates that I must continue to work. Bleh.

I start dreading Monday morning by Sunday evening and if I am busy on Sunday evening, the inevitable dread creeps up on me by the time I get ready for bed.

Summer has been so busy! Maybe that allows for why I feel as though Monday comes much too soon. We had birthday parties for both Josh and Luke in May and a Carole King/James Taylor concert over Memorial Day weekend. What a great night that was! I spent an entire week redecorating the kitchen and if you know me, you know that I HATE to paint….emphasis on HATE! The results were worthwhile however. There was an assortment of graduation parties also in June. Would it be June without them? Katies wedding shower was in June...followed by Father’s Day. I got the chance to see Phantom of the Opera a few weeks ago, which was a really lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Fourth of July was busy and HOT! There is a Reds game coming up and a 50th anniversary celebration . It seems that time is speeding by and dragging me along with it. I hate that I notice it as well. Kids pay no attention to time. Even young adults really don't. When did I become so conscious of the days, months and years going by so quickly? Probably when I also noticed grey hairs and gravity playing games with certain body parts.

I love summer as much as I hate winter. I love my patio at night with the lites strung across it and candles twinkling in the daylily garden. I love sitting out there, all alone, with just the sounds of crickets. I love the scent of my herb garden. I love the peacefullness and solitude of my garden at the end of the day just before its time for the city to go to sleep. Few things calm me, but there is something about summer nights and looking up at the stars, which makes me smile.

On a Friday night recently, I was babysitting the boys and I planned a "sleep-out" on the patio. It wasn't really an all night thing, but once it got dark, we took the laptop outside along with the movie Kung Fu Panda (I know, I know, but they love it), I popped popcorn, we took blankets and drinks out and the boys cuddled in the Adirondack chairs, I in the chaise lounge, and we watched the movie under the stars. They loved it and guess what? So did I. Ive never been a camper type (almost un-american, I know) but I completely enjoyed lying out there with my grandsons, with the dark, cool breezes, not really blowing, but just gently waving around us, as we watched a movie.

Not equal to summer nights, but close, are summer mornings. I go outside with the paper and a cup of tea before the rest of the world wakes up and I watch the birds in the bird bath and the squirrels running around our yard, looking for nuts to store for winter, especially now since the black walnut tree is dropping walnuts all over our yard...a somewhat chilling reminder that winter will soon descend upon us.

Summer and weekends go hand in hand. Im in love with driving my Mustang, top down. I thought I might get over the novelty of it, but I haven't. And at my age, I think I probably should. Even on very hot days, I still like having the top down. I know it's a good looking car and even tho its getting older, I still love it and the reminder that I can now truly be "Mustang Sallie".

Summer means hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill and not caring if you eat bad stuff or worrying about the calories. Summer means corn on the cob, dripping with butter (OK..I WILL think about those calories tomorrow), potato salad and deviled eggs and watermelon and cantaloupe and blueberries and blackberries and peaches and icy, cold drinks (bourbon slush) and get togethers and swimming and fireworks on the Fourth of July and street fairs and first Thursdays in Centerville and Soaring Sounds and the Air Show and baseball. It means shorts and sandals and sunglasses and sunburns and the smell of the wind in your hair. It means sitting on the patio til the wee hours, drinking Bloody Mary’s and knowing there’s no work tomorrow and loving the fact that we have a house and yard with so much privacy that when we are all yelling at each other over a trivia question, no one can really hear us.

And summer also claims a place in my heart for another reason. The summer before my Dad died, in 1964, my parents and I were going to a family picnic. It was one of those beautiful summer days, not too hot, but definitely summer with a nice breeze and the bluest skies I think Ive ever seen.

I remember it like it was yesterday. We all knew he was dying and yet instead of being sad..we were happy and excited to be seeing all of my Dad's family. Maybe we knew it would be the last time and we wanted it to be happy instead of sad.

Anyway...Nat King Cole was playing on the radio of my Dad's Corvair Monza. That Sunday, That Summer. For the rest of my life, whenever I hear that song, I will remember back to that Sunday, that summer and I will smile.

When I get very old and look back over my life, I think what I will yearn for most are those lazy summer days and nights, when life was sweet and mellow and we had, at least for that time, not a care in the world.