“Cleanliness and order are not matters of instinct; they are matters of education, and like most great things, you must cultivate a taste for them.”
Last night the weather woman predicted a polar vortex. She was describing summer temperatures in the mid to low 60’s. I guess polar was about the best adjective she could find to describe the cool, even cold, summer days and nights. Right now, though, it is oppressively humid and totally still. I feel closed in, surrounded by the thick air. I swear I can even see it.
Gracie and I are going to the dump today. Sunday, our usual day, is, in the summer, the worst day to go. I know. I’ve been there. Cars are lined up at the gate waiting to get in, and there are no parking spots near the trash or the recycle bins. I just hope the predicted rain holds off. My luck is usually such that just as I’m arriving at the dump the skies open and the deluge begins.
I don’t remember staying in the house any day, especially on a rainy day, when I was a kid. Rainy days were fun. We’d find the biggest puddles, jump in and send sprays of water all around us soaking ourselves at the same time. We’d walk barefooted in the gutters filled with rainwater splashing and kicking water as we went. If the rain was heavy, the water ran quickly through the gutters to the sewers. We’d float leaves or pieces of bark and run along side to watch them fly through the water until our makeshift boats disappeared in the sewer grate. Then we’d go back and do it again.
I never minded getting wet or dirty when I was young. My standards for cleanliness were low. Sometimes I’d even go to bed in the clothes I had worn that day. It just seemed easier. Now I carry wet naps in my bag and in the car. I wear gloves when I pot plants or when I’m in the garden. I carry a Tide pen in case of spills. My standards now are quite high. I think that is one of the burdens of adulthood.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: gutter boats, humidity, polar vortex, rainy day
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July 14, 2014 at 11:40 am
The day has been rather nice here, especially after a tiny thunderstorm passed. I knew it was comming because the flies were insane but now after it seems they just don’t care any longer 🙂
I loved making canals between puddles slowly emptying one and then continue to another. I loved making bark boats but not if my older brother was with me. He made them so beautiful with several sails and a keel. Mine were usually just a piece of bark with a single elaf as a sail 🙂 Having an older brother could be a pain in the a.. , especially if he wanted to help making nice bark boats 🙂 🙂 🙂
It was the same when I wanted to build a plastic miniature model, usually an areoplane from the second world war. My planes were usually more glue than model but his was perfect and then he gave his to me. I know he just wanted to be kind and he always has been but still 🙂 It just made me realize how bad my own model looked 🙂 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
I’ve just picked out a blck currant and wild gooseberry cobbler from the oven, smells delicious and I’ll have custard with it. I’ve never had black currant in it before so I have no idea if it tastes good 🙂
July 14, 2014 at 2:34 pm
Christer,
I’d like your thunderstorm around here to clear out the humidity but I do not want your flies.
You can float your boats with mine any time as mine look like yours. They were never fancy, but they floated which is what counted.
I put together models fairly well. I did a few houses when I had my train set, and they looked good. I like had work.
I like black current jam. That is the only way I have had it. I hope your cobbler tasted great.
Have a wonderful evening.
July 14, 2014 at 10:11 pm
The cobbler turned out rater nice but if one doesn’t like black currants that much ( I can never have enough ofd them ;´:-) ) I think poerhaps there should have been more gooseberries. But even Nova and Sune who always get what’s left loved it 🙂 It might have been the custard they loved most though 🙂
July 15, 2014 at 9:54 am
Christer,
They never have gooseberries here and no fresh black currents. Fruit pies are common but they have common fruit as well.
I’m glad you enjoyed your cobbler.
July 14, 2014 at 2:14 pm
Hi Kat,
We played outside in the rain, too, unless it was a thunderstorm. I wouldn’t go out in thunderstorms but I would sit on the porch and watch them.
Our favorite places to play were always very dirty: the brook, the swamp, the polliwog pools covered with duckweed, the permanent puddle in the dirt lane at the end of the street. We never played around them. We always played in them and came home muddy, wet, tired and happy.
I still don’t mind very much if I get dirty or muddy. This is probably due to an adult life spent with horses and Jack Russell Terriers. There was always, always dirt and mud and other things.
I don’t wear gloves when I do dirt-encrusted chores although I have several pairs of work gloves. I do have a Tide pen but don’t carry it with me nor do I carry wet naps very often. I have them. I just forget them.
Piki Dog had booster shots at the vet this morning. He growled and bared his teeth a lot. He screamed before the doctor even got near him with the needle. He’s a delicate little flower. 🙂
Same weather up here. The AC unit may come out of the box today.
Enjoy the day.
July 14, 2014 at 2:39 pm
Hi Caryn,
Inevitably something falls on my shirt while I’m eating. At home I just whip off the shirt and throw the spot under the faucet and scrub it away, but at a restaurant I need my Tide pen. It is a necessity.
Wet naps are for when I eat something in the car and my hands got sticky. In Ghana they were indispensable as there was never a place to wash your hands. At many chop bars, local restaurants, they give you a bowl with soap to wash up before you eat as you eat with your hand.
Poor Piki Dog is so mistreated.
I’m going to throw on the AC in my bedroom anyway as it is really hot upstairs.
Have a great day!
July 14, 2014 at 11:58 pm
We reached 101 degrees and then the rain came in advance of the cold front from the same polar vortex. The weather prognosis is for rain tomorrow night, Wednesday, and the big chance on Thursday.
When I was a kid we played in the summer rain until we heard the thunder and we know to come inside. My mother’s fear back then was the possibility of tornados. In those days they didn’t have weather radar and there was no way to forecast severe weather.
I had a flight student who carried alcohol phone wipes into the flight simulator and wiped down every switch, control and knob that he might touch during the flight. He told me he does the same thing in the real airplane. I wondered to myself if he was related to Howard Hughes. 🙂
July 15, 2014 at 9:52 am
Bob,
I’d think the same thing. There is something to carrying cleanliness to far though I do wipe down the remote at any hotel where I’m staying. That and the spread are germ covered and disgusting according to several experts.
Thunder didn’t bother us but lightning sent us scurrying inside or some place sheltered if we were somewhere on our bikes.
They said rain the last two days but nothing fell. It got so humid yesterday afternoon I finally put the air on to cool down me and the house. It was a delight sleeping.