Mother Nature toys with us. The sky is cloudy for a while, filled with white clouds which carry no rain, then the sun appears. I hold off my cheers. I know better. Sure enough, the clouds return while the sun waits in the wings, but she will soon take another turn and reappear. Right now it is 79°.

I have a few chores today. The dog fur tumbleweeds are back or maybe they never left. They are everywhere downstairs. I could make a black and white science fiction movie with the tumbleweeds having teeth and chasing me down the hall to attack. I can imagine them chomping at my heels.

This morning I grocery shopped. It will be delivered this afternoon. I did forget a few things, but they are extras not usually on my list. Plantains and strawberries came to mind later.

When I was a kid, I loved watermelon on a hot day. My father would cut it into slices. When I was really young, the juice often ran down my arms. It made red lines. My sister wondered why we don’t have watermelon everywhere. We all spit out the seeds. Sometimes it was a contest to see who could spit the furthest. I never won. It was the same with cherry pits. I also never won those contests either.

When I was a teacher, I used to travel every summer. Mostly I went to Europe. I’d be gone five or six weeks. I always ended my trips with a few days in London. I’d stay mostly in hostels. I traveled on the cheap. I carried a Let’s Go Europe book with all the ways to save money like having a drink at a bar with free food. I’d buy bread and tomatoes and cold cuts to make sandwiches. I bought mustard paste and kept it in my backpack. I stayed at the former Olympic dorms in Helsinki. In other places I stayed in university housing as students were gone for the holidays. I never stayed in a hotel. I took trains and busses at night and slept and saved a little money. Usually I even came home with a little money left over.

Now, of course, when I travel, I don’t backpack, and I stay in hotels. I eat in restaurants. I rent a car. I live the good life.

This entry was posted on June 29, 2025 at 1:25 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.