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Gorgeous summer days are noticeably passing by, but I've been preoccupied with Flickr, almost addicted, and job hunting. Some riding is getting done, just not as exotic as in previous seasons. Lots of marinated meats, fresh caught fish & garden vegetables are being grilled in the evenings. Ice cream by the buckets' full disappear without a trace. Enjoyable hours poolside reading and researching, occasionally just staring, reflecting or photographing surrounding bugs, flowers, tress and other self-amusing objects. All too brief visits with family & friends. Compiled a vocabulary list of over 100 words from a skillfully detailed, richly realistic novel - Love in the Time of Cholera - outside of my usual genre, but no regrets. Created an impossible mess in the upper foyer - in an attempt to organize & regroup 30 years of pictures and frames. Went from zero to 50 sit-ups this week and cannot remember why or when I gave them up, since they REALLY do make such a nice difference in the mirror - from my vantage point at least! Sleeping like a lamb, thanks to Mother Nature's good sense to turn down the heat and kick up the breeze after 10PM. Summer should just keep going & going...
How is your summer going??
For those of you who missed it, yesterday was the 17th annual Ride to Work Day - a day set aside for all who ride on or in two wheels.
I was looking forward to participating, you know me, anything for the biker cause, but a couple of things prevented my intention.
First of all, I don't have a job to ride to! Well, not quite yet anyway. Secondly, I had an interview yesterday (second round!) for said job and due to it's professional nature, felt compelled not to show up with wind blown hair and my skirt over my eyes. My alternative plan was to attend the interview, rush home to put on more comfortable riding gear, like a swim suit (it was near 90 by noon), then hit the open road for the remainder of the day.
The interview went very well, the ride home in the four-wheeled vehicle was excruciating - I think the air conditioner is going, but the payoff was near if I could only locate the suit I wanted (it has a cute matching skirt).
Just when I was about to throw my perfectly coiffed hair into a ponytail, the phone rang - it was my baby daughter and I couldn't blow off that call. She was letting me know she was literally blocks away and coming to enjoy the often ignored pool and me, I think. Well, at least I was dressed properly for the occasion.
Throw together some homemade Hummus, baked tortillas, elk sausage, Wisconsin cheese, fresh black raspberries, flotation devices, underwater goggles, CDs and a couple of Bloody Mary's and you have the makings for a perfect poolside visit with your offspring and her girlfriend.
Situate the lounge chairs, towels, etc. But wait, "are those dark clouds moving this way?" No worries, you get just as tan when it's overcast and besides, it's freakin' hot without the sun shining so shiny. "Yeah, well we were going to go to the beach near our house (an hour north of said cloud system!) and this will really suck." No rain in the forecast, it's nothing at all, it will pass.
I don't recall who grabbed what, but let's just say it all worked out - we had fun without the sun, except for that deer-in-the-headlights pause we experienced when the town's alarm went off and we pondered carrying the Bloody Mary fixings to the basement!
I expect to be employed and a participant in the 18th annual Ride to Work Day, my kid can have the pool to herself!
Another fantastic week of riding, gardening and crafting - due to the right amounts of sun, breeze and rain.
Even though there is no such thing as too much riding in my book, I am grateful for the times when a threatening sky convinces me to first share some energy with an indoor or backyard project before hitting the road. Besides, the mosquitoes are usually less brutal earlier in the day.
While the berries and weeds get picked or a layout idea is designed, the productive side of my personality is satisfied - I have earned a check mark, and my "free bird" guilt is alleviated - I have accumulated some "brownie" points.
So yeah, it's true, during the few scattered days, during the limited few weeks per year, when our beloved Wisconsin weather is deemed "perfect", I am not. If it takes a rain cloud, and often several of his buddies, to keep me grounded to my commitments before I go and play, then let it rain - just not today, because I have highway to explore, brownie points to spend!
Nothing like a three-day weekend, especially when the days are perfect Midwest weather summer ones and no obligations are staining up your to do list.
Feasted on deep-fried turkey and too many "fixings" with a couple of dozen friends; tagged along on a 3 bike, 4 person, lazy, 200-mile jaunt; visited the construction site of a 2,000-acre "mega farm"; cruised alongside a significant number of newly erected wind turbines; played in the garden & the pool, and for the first time in my life skipped fireworks - although caught sight of many during the two county ride home from the turkey/mosquito feast!
Hopefully everyone took some time to reflect on the FREEdoms we are so accustomed, the ones we take for granted, the ones for which the women & men before us sacrificed, the ones that are represented by the flag of our country, the ones I wish for every human being on the planet.
In the name of Independence, live free ~
Now believe me when I say, I realize this is NOTHING in the scheme of things - a MINOR inconvenience, a blip, a little rain water where it doesn't belong. And trust me, I didn't freak out, or cuss, or jump on the bike and flee - I simply cranked the dehumidifier, grabbed a broom and did what I could.
We did anticipate this, with all the rain in the forecast and because it's happened before - back in April actually and even worse a couple of years ago - so most things are in plastic totes or up on shelves, (except for the one cardboard box almost full with Goodwill stuff that I smartly stowed on top of a tote along with a rug that should have been thrown away 50 times) and I finally convinced him to cut the rug he keeps in his reloading room around the 700 pound shelf, which I'm certain will reduce back injury and cussing to a bare minimum.
I wondered if we couldn't seal the old cracked floor with some type of miracle sealer. He says, no, but maybe different gutters will help when the roof is re-shingled later this year. We'll see.
Does anybody want to buy a house with a pool (not the pond) in a nice, quiet, safe, eco-friendly neighborhood??!
How is your summer going??
