“Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.”
When I first woke up, it was 5:30. I let the dogs out and went on the deck. It was still damp from last night. The morning sky was beginning to lighten. I stayed on the deck until the dogs finished their business then the three of us went back inside and back to bed. I woke up at 8:30.
Today will be hot again, 88°, but it is a pretty day with a breeze from the south, a blue sky with a few clouds and lots of sun. I have nothing on my dance card today, but I figure to honor the third law of nature, the law of action, and do a wash even though the laundry basket is not even full. This is a big step for me. I have little laundry and no trash. It is like a miracle.
When I was a kid, we didn’t take too many vacations away from home. I do remember when my sister Moe, the youngest, was still a toddler and we went to Vermont, way into northern Vermont. We went with another family. The house was huge and was on a small country sort of a highway with two lanes and few cars. Across the street was a lake. It was shallow for a bit then there was a huge drop-off. My father used to take me on his back underwater. I remember there were fish in the deep part. I’d stay underwater until I tapped my father’s shoulder, our agreed upon signal, to let him know I needed air. Behind the house was a huge hill and beyond that were pine trees, a copse of trees. A rivulet flowed beside the house. It had the biggest frogs I’d ever seen. We’d spent hours catching the frogs, but we always let them go. It was the fun of the hunt we enjoyed. My father built a lean-to at the top of the hill. He cut limbs and tied then together to form the lean-to which had sides and a roof. He covered the roof with pine branches. I thought my father was amazing. I never knew he could build a lean-to.
The house had an enormous porch, a wrap-around porch. I remember the kitchen had a phone on the wall, the sort with a crank. If you cranked it, you got a small electrical jolt. We cranked it anyway.
My parents crossed the border into Canada for dinner one night. I was totally jealous, not of dinner but of dinner in another country. I begged them to take us on a ride into Canada, but they didn’t. I was really disappointed. Years later, we did go to Canada and see the falls. It was finally my first other country.
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August 25, 2022 at 6:08 pm
Hi Kat,
Today the sky is partly cloudy with a slight chance of rain. The high is predicted to top out at only 90° but with a dash of humidity. Yesterday evening was the first evening that I sat out on my patio and read a book. All summer long it’s been way too hot to even get into my poolmuch less sit on the patio. Now that the fires from hell have died down and we got one tremendous Noah type rain storm, I’m looking for a more normal end to August.
When I was a kid we always took road trips but never stayed in a cabin by a lake. We went to California in 1955 for the opening season of Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, and a side trip to Las Vegas. Other summer vacations included Miami Beach and the required visit to the relatives in New York. Like my parents before me, I consider Motel 6 roughing it. 🙂
August 25, 2022 at 9:54 pm
Hi Bob,
I get how topping out at 90° might feel cool for you. Here it is the start of a major heat wave. We haven’t had much rain though we may get some tomorrow. A couple of days my deck felt too hot to stay there, but mostly it as been a great go-to spot. I’m glad you had such a storm. Let’s hope more could be on the way.
Many summers we had stay-vacations. We went somewhere every day. I loved the museums. Being there as a kid gave me a love for museums. Even in Ghana, on my first free weekend, I went to Accra and to the National Museum. I still love the sarcophagi room at the Museum of Fine Arts.
When I was a kid, my family didn’t have a whole lot of money, but my parents still gave us a wonderful childhood. When I was older, my father was quite successful, and he was wonderfully generous including paying for European trips.
August 26, 2022 at 8:35 am
My parents never did a stay-vacation, but we did many with our kids. When we lived in Boroklyn, my mother visited her mother daily. When we moved to Texas in 1953, my mother missed her mother and spoke with her weekly on the phone. Going to NY to visit relatives in the summer was generally a mandatory trip.
August 26, 2022 at 9:02 am
We lived near almost all of my mother’s family, and she had 7 siblings. Most Sundays everyone went to my grandparents’ house. The women were in the kitchen smoking and chatting while the men watched football upstairs. The cousins chased each other up the two sets of stairs or played in the small backyard. I was the oldest so I found my own ways to be occupied. The younger cousins are still close.
August 25, 2022 at 6:22 pm
Thanks to educational KTCC I learned the word lean-to today 🙂
It’s a funny word because at first I thought it was something you could lean against. We just boringly call it translated under-stand which probably sounds funny in English. The mystery of languages.
It was hot today. Another heat-day, I don’t know, it was just hot.
A 3-day free openair music festival in town starts tomorrow. It’s the annual festival with music not only for young people so I probably won’t be at home for too long if I can bear mostly unmasked crowds this time. We’ll see, maybe smaller stages, it’s only about 15 min by bike, no problem.
August 25, 2022 at 10:02 pm
Hi Birgit,
I’m so glad to introduce you to odd and funny words in English. I can understand it wasn’t easy to decipher. Yup, under-stand does sound funny and remote from lean-to. I love the mysteries of language!!
Some towns here do have town bands and concerts once a week. People sit on the grass around the gazebos. The crowd is mostly older though there are some families with kids. We never have music festivals so I envy you yours. Have fun. Stay safe!!