A bit of the heat is returning today and bringing along with it the humidity, but the morning still has a bit of the night, a coolness, a pleasant breeze from the south. The yard is filled with sunlight. Nala found the best spot in the back of the yard in the sun. I called her and she ignored me at first, but then she got up, reluctantly, and came to the deck.

First thing this morning, I went out with the dogs hoping to find my sandal. It disappeared last night and I immediately went hunting, but in the dark I couldn’t see anything even with the back lights on. This morning I saw Nala race to her newest hole and dig out my sandal. She ran with it in her mouth, and I could see the dirt falling out as she ran. I knew better than to chase her. Finally, I enticed her to drop it, grabbed her collar and got the sandal. It was dirty but didn’t even have tooth marks. I wonder what will go missing today.

When I was a kid, this week would have been the last hurrah, the last week of freedom, the last week before school. My mother would take us shopping for new shoes, new uniforms and school supplies. The uniforms were easy, a blue skirt, white blouse and a cowboy tie, or at least that’s what I called it. We could wear whatever shoes we wanted to school so my mother hauled us all down to the shoe store where I got my feet x-rayed, and I put my foot on the silver metal slide to find my shoe size. My mother bought us sturdy shoes, tie shoes, hoping they’d last the whole year through rain and snow and recess.

Picking out my lunch box and pencil case took time. They would be me, the only things I could choose. My lunch boxes often had TV characters on them. I remember my Annie Oakley lunch box. My pencil cases had a different scene on the front but the same things inside as all other pencil cases. I never did know what to do with the plastic triangle except to make straight lines. Sharpening my pencils with the little sharpener took time and was a bit messy as all the shavings ended up either on the table or on the floor. When I was in the fourth grade, I chose a plaid lunch box and a plastic pencil case with a zipper. I was older then.