7/25/08

It’s summertime and the living is easy
Fish are jumping and the cotton is high
Your daddy’s rich and your mama’s good-looking
Hush, little baby don’t you cry

I’ve been scanning pictures from mom’s photo album and emailing them to my older sister. I came across this one and it reminded me of those dog days of summer. I remember it being hot outside. Me. I’m the little girl on the left looking oh so disheveled and having a really bad hair day. All that came to mind was the song “Summertime, and the living is easy.” Don’t know why. It seemed like a pretty easy time back then. There were only 3 of us kids a the time, maybe that’s why. We were borrowing someone’s little fishing shack “up north.” That was our one and only vacation that I remember. But it was an adventure. Dad took us fishing during the day. At night a bear came around. Mom decided it was too dangerous for us to stay there and we went home before the vacation was over.

My postcard from the edge.

We’re in the thick of summer now and I’m enjoying it ever-so-much. I’m taking a day off here and there for no particular reason. I’ve accumulated enough vacation time that I can and I’m sure this plays a big part in my love of summer.

During vacation the week of the 4th I kept busy with gardening. The weather was perfect for it. I can’t complain about the weather this summer much at all in fact. Last weekend Pat and I (and all good Parrotheads) attended the Jimmy Buffett concert at Alpine Valley and it was supposed to rain. It was overcast all day, but much to the delight of tailgaters everywhere it never rained a drop.

In other news, I’m still alive and well or as well as I’ve ever been I think. No drastic changes in my blood work that is. I think ignoring the situation (having leukemia) has been working quite well for me. 🙂

No news with oldest son except to say that he’s still sober and I thank God for that. Youngest son finally made it to Chile. He left out one small detail when telling me his plans for the move which I didn’t quite know how to take. Since his girlfriend was already in Chile, I assumed he was going there to be with her. Once he arrived, he dropped off his baggage and almost immediately headed for Brazil to meet up with a friend so the two of them could backpack BACK to Chile, which took almost another month. I just shook my head. Yeah, ok. They’ll be great stories when he’s 65. Maybe I’m jealous. I should just be happy he made it back alive I guess. And he was excited to tell me all about it when he got back. I should be grateful for that, right? Ok, ok ok.

And I should be grateful to still have my job at this point in this area from what I see. According to the newspaper, in and around my city 700 jobs have been lost in recent months. The city’s population isn’t much more than 19,000. Whole manufacturing sites are closing down. I was just thinking the other day that I’m surprised that there isn’t more crime in this area because of the unemployment rate. And I was also thinking that I should be more conscious of locking my doors during the daytime, as well as at night. Lots of times I don’t even close my garage door during the day if I’m at home. I really should make myself more secure.

I hope all of my OD friends are having a wonderful summer. I stop by to leave notes far more than I make entries. Maybe the entry thing will change someday. (or not) But the notes won’t. I care about each one of you, or I wouldn’t be leaving notes. Thanks so much for being my friends.

In closing, to quote the songwriter Christine Mcvie,

“I wish you all the love in the world,
But most of all, I wish it from myself.”

Brenda