The wind is so strong and constant it is blowing everything, even the biggest branches, and the trees and leaves are noisy. Last night it rained, but now it is sunny. It is 76°. A thunderstorm is predicted for later, but, with the sunshine, that seems remote. I have an outside concert today so I need to keep an eye on the weather.

The spiders are here. Webs are everywhere. Even the tiniest spider is busy weaving. From here in the den I can see a couple of webs close to the ceiling and another hanging down from the wood around the door. That one is bothering me. It won’t last much longer.

Summers when I was a kid were busy. On weekdays I was always home for breakfast and supper but only sometimes for lunch as I often took lunch on the road. I made a sandwich, added cookies or chips and used a peanut butter jar for my ZaRex. Orange was the usual syrup flavor. ZaRex came in glass jugs, moonshine looking jugs, the sort Snuffy Smith used for his brew. I’d make a pitcher full, often using the colored pitcher made out of aluminum, the one with accompanying colorful glasses. It kept the ZaRex really cold. The outside of it was usually covered in condensation. I remember there was always ZaRex. My father called it bug juice.

The first sport I understood was baseball, nine innings, three outs for each side per inning. I was older before I learned nuisances like the infield fly rule, a sacrifice bunt or defensive indifference on a steal, strategic plays. The bleachers at Fenway were cheap. The T-station was close. We’d spend a day at the park. When I was a kid, the Sox weren’t very good, but I didn’t care. I loved baseball, the Red Sox and Fenway Park.

I had a friend who collected baseball cards, the only girl I knew who did. She kept her cards in boxes sorted by teams and stored under her bed. When I visited, she’d pull out her newest cards and her current favorites to show me. She went to a different school than I did after 8th grade. I lost track of her and always wondered what happened to her and her cards.

Cloudy days tend to be busy days. The house is cooler so I don’t have the heat as an excuse to be a sloth. Chores are easier to finish. I sweep and polish. I brush away the webs. I clean the appliances on the counter and the outside of the fridge, chores I seldom do. I’ll read or nap in the afternoon. I earned the idleness.

This entry was posted on August 3, 2026 at 1:15 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.