It was surely summer before we left for Alabama - warm evenings, eating dinner outside, floats down the river, birds and bees and sprinklers chugging, and surely it was summer there on that turquoise gulf with the scent of sunscreen mixed with salt filling every breath, but somehow upon our return... now it's REALLY summer.
Summer all the way.
Hot in the morning, fans whirring, closing down the house upon rising, and opening it wide to the crickets when turning in. The snow boots are collecting cobwebs, shoved under the mudroom bench, while flip flops and river shoes pile up on the carpet. Our garden bench is decorated with drying towels and suits and the cats have staked out all the best shade.
Aah.
The image from our trip that rests foremost in my mind happened one afternoon, treading water in a lake while watching the girls, all three silhouetted against the blue sky, leaping off the end of the dock shouting "BEST SUMMER EVER!!!!!" A scene from a movie. A scene from a movie set in the fifties. A scene from the most summery, innocent, sweet movie of all time.
Later Xi hit her shin attempting to do a cartwheel (getting scared at the last minute) off that same dock, and cried for an eternity, and Bella somehow lost her glasses on the bottom of the lake but never mind those parts. The jumping! The dock! The lake!
SUMMER.
No matter what it actually ends up looking like I always picture summer as this super long yellow season that arcs across the calendar year. It's days are, again long, and filled with pleasurable ways to while away the hours before bed. Watermelon, swimsuits as outfits, ice cream for dinner. So yes, it comes as a shock every year (every year!) when all the things that have to happen during all the other months still have to happen during summer. Except for recess duty and lunch packing of course, all life stuff doesn't disappear when the pages of our fairy calendar flip to June.
Lame!
The kids still have to eat, seriously, damn them for still being hungry and needing regular dinner. We still have to make money. Ken's cage is still stinky. (Apparently our guinea pig didn't make his "Give me food!, Give me veggies!, wheeking sound we hear ALL THE TIME, while with his petsitter. What the hell?) Henry is still shedding too. It's ridiculous.
But I know that just like that snapshot from our vacation that edits out the squabbles and bleeding shins, these pesky things won't be the parts I will remember. Come February all I will recall from these glorious yellow months will be the river and day lillies and burritos eaten in long green grass.
My favorite part is "swimsuits as outfits."
Posted by: 6512 and growing | 07/01/2013 at 02:28 PM