What I plan to do in the next few weeks will be the metaphorical equivalent of me throwing myself at Summer’s feet, wrapping my arms around her ankles and begging her not to go just yet, please, please, please, I’ll do anything, ohpleaseohpleaseohplease! I’ll use my teeth if I have to.
I have always loved Summer and her warm breezes and hot cement and drippy watermelons. I don’t understand people who crave Winter. Clearly, they are mentally ill.
Countless times during the summer I do a simple exercise. While doing something summery, I try to slow time down and let the experience permeate every cell of my body, as if I can keep it in reserve somewhere in my spleen to be called on sometime in mid-January. It’s yet to work.
When I try to access these warm memories in mid-January, the only message that comes back is, “It is freezing. As far as I recall, it has always been freezing, and it will continue to be gray, mucky and frozen forever. You’re doomed to a slow, cold death. There is no such thing as Summer.”
So, if you happen to run into me in the next few weeks, don’t be alarmed when I am wearing my swimsuit every where I go, refusing to eat anything but grilled food, watching only poorly-acted action movies, listening to my Summer CDs, asking you to reapply sunscreen to my back, and demanding Tiger’s Blood Snowies every hour on the hour.
This is just how I cope.
You REALLY need to move to Phoenix. It’s always summer here!
In my own hopes to save summer I will be staying in the Holiday Inn Express
in Park City thursday night with my girls. Thank heavens Bryant’s priority club
points have added up to a free night’s stay since the water and air conditioning
bill have eaten up any remains of my checking account (the only bad thing about
summer). I will let my kids swim in the indoor (boo!) pool. Then friday morning
we will all go to Midway to Swiss Days. Here we will enjoy the beautiful mountain
scenery, the bratwurst, the homeade bake goods and the scones. I can even overlook the crowds and the wood angels for sale. All the time
remembering our cute, fun-loving mom and grandma. She would want us to go. Times like these make me miss her so much. Even my dad liked to go wander around Swiss days. Anyway, I can’t wait to go. By the way thank you for remembering my mom on your website and loving her too. Hope you have a great end of summer weekend.
Labor Day always makes me feel as if I have once again squandered another summer. All those plans to spend Sunday mornings reading fun novels on my rooftop and Saturdays at the beach and attend free concerts when I sneak out of work early got demoted in priority until there were no more weekends or free concerts left to enjoy them. . . but at least I’m in the OC where it is always sunny but oddly chilly in the evenings.
I love winter. But moreso fall. That’s when I’m out in the thick of those beautiful colors in the mountains searching for large, meaty animals.
If I were a superhero, I would be Mr. Freeze from the Batman series. I feel my best when I step out into the chilly air and take a nice, deep breath. I especially feel calm when there are things falling from the sky….you know, rain, snow, etc.
I went running this morning (1.5 miles with a 9-pound backpack and hunting boots) and the air was quite crisp. I breathed in that fall-like air and smiled nearly the entire way. So beautiful. So beautiful.
Today is a day worth celebrating. Thanks for putting words to it, Tiff. I spent 2 1/2 hours outside this morning deadheading roses, pulling and digging weeds and ripping out overgrown vegetation. I intended to spend an hour, but I couldn’t stop. It must have been somewhere in the upper 70’s; a slight breeze blowing; birds chirping…wait, they may have been, but I spent most of my time talking on the phone to various family members as I worked, and I can’t really say about the birds. But surely they were chirping their delight. What a beautiful day! And technically it is a summer day. But the best kind for me personally. That little hint of fall in the air and moderate temperatures make me wonder why we don’t set up housekeeping in the back yard. Who wants to go in? Then there was the neighbor who honked hello as she drove past, and the across-the-street neighbor who stopped to talk for a while. This must be what it feels like in heaven….. except for the weeds. But today I’m even thankful for the weeds. Why else would I have spent my morning outside enjoying this glorious weather?!