All the OUTS are officially here- school's OUT, dining OUT, toes are OUT - so summer must surely be here!
This morning was our first morning to eat breakfast OUT on our screened-in porch. Now that it
is really summer we shall probably eat there most every morning. The porch is on the West, and is shady of a morning. It is also so private that we can safely enjoy breakfast in our pajamas.
We love it. Mother Nature puts on a much better show than does Harry Smith or Matt Lauer.
They will just have to get along without us for the summer. I may skip the morning TV news, but I still read the paper after breakfast, and do all five puzzles:word scramble, cryptoquotes, crossword, and sudoku. Although, I do have a real love/hate relationship with sudoku. It
is easy on Monday and Tuesday, then progressively harder as the week goes on. Late in the week, when I have messed it up, and can't get it unscrambled, I just throw the darn puzzle OUT with the trash.
All the kids will be OUT of school by next Wednesday. Even though they are all busy in the summer, we do get to see them more than usual. Being teachers, our lives were so governed by school schedules, that I still feel a shiver of excitement when the school year comes to an end.
I know that is silly, but that built in schedule just never leaves. The same is true in the Fall.
I feel excitement in the air when school is about to begin, even though it is not beginning for us.
When I was a kid, I couldn't wait for summer, so that I could go barefooted. My mother always had trouble keeping shoes on me. School's OUT.........my shoes went into the closet, and I didn't
see them until August (and by then they were always too small.) It was agony putting my feet back into shoes in the Fall.
Now, as an adult, I try to be more restrained. I just let my toes OUT. I will definitely be in sandals now until probably October. But as I look down at my poor feet, I realize that I do need a professional pedicure. I never would have dreamed that a new hip joint would make it so darn
hard to bend. Don has reluctantly agreed to using the toe nail clippers on my feet, but he does draw the line at nail polish. So my toes do look very scraggly. Maybe I should put them back
IN.........Nah!
This evening we pursued another kind of OUT --- eating OUT. Don and I decided we weren't too hungry, and that we wanted something light. Mother said she really couldn't eat too much either. Now, Mother loves her cookies. When I checked the cookie jar, there were about 5 or 6 white chocolate/macadamia nut cookies missing. So I guess she really wasn't very hungry with good reason.
Don and I never eat at Taco Bell, but they have been advertising on TV, and their new items
looked good. So we thought we might try it. Well, it's a good thing we weren't too hungry. We weren't very impressed. Anyway, most of the filling fell right OUT of the wrap.
But the evening ended on a much sweeter note. I helped turn OUT the lights of day by sitting on the porch until almost 9:30. What a gorgeous evening! It is great fun to watch the birds come in to roost for the night. They begin their evening ritual by landing on the telephone wires.
Sometime there are hundreds. Then they go through an evening ritual of grooming their feathers, and facing the West as if worshiping the setting sun. Then, one by one, they begin to fly off to nearby trees, and disappear into the foilage. The largest tree in our yard seems to be
a popular hotel. Many fly in with a great fluttering of wings. Some stay, but some fly right back out to try other trees. There must be a door keeper who only allows entrance to certain birds.
Then there are those birds who sing an evening lullaby over and over. But eventually, just about
the time that the sun fully sets, I realize that the phone wires are empty, and all the lullabies have ended.
It means Lights OUT...........the end of a beautiful day.
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