I saw a crape myrtle in bloom yesterday. My own crape myrtle is still green. Our neighborhood is full of crape myrtle, and as beautiful as they are, they are also a reminder that summer is at its peak and that we are on the downward trajectory toward fall and winter. July 4 was just over a week ago, and it seems like a distant memory.
It’s Friday, and I’m so relieved, and not because the work week is over. I like working, although I love time off, too. I’m relieved because I had to tackle several unpleasant things this week, things that I had been dreading, and that are all done now. I had to go to the dentist to have two old fillings repaired, and it didn’t hurt a bit. I had to attend a mid-week social gathering among people I barely know, and I had a pretty good time. I had to make some phone calls and run some errands and deal with repair people - check, check, and check. My list is all crossed off. I handled my business.
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It's Saturday now. We're at a summer swim meet, watching my niece and nephew swim. We know a few other families at this pool so we have plenty of swimmers to cheer for.
We missed my nephew's first event because we are new alumni parents, still reveling in the freedom of unscheduled Saturday mornings. We still love summer swimming, but a summer swim meet is even better when you roll in at 10, like a gosh darn boss. “Oh, nice of you to make an appearance,” the people say. Why yes, it is nice of us, isn’t it?
*****
Sometimes a summer rainstorm clears the atmosphere, pushes out the heat and humidity and leaves the world feeling refreshed. Sometimes it does the opposite. It rained on Thursday night and on and off yesterday, and today is blazing hot and jungle humid. The air is hard to describe - it's somewhere in between solid and liquid and vapor. Dense. Heavy. Sultry. Definitely not a day for handling business.
*****
It’s Sunday now, and we’re just home from another swim meet; this time, the Swim Reapers against a bunch of other alumni swim teams in a Sunday morning meet. Once again, we missed an early event because once again, we pulled up at 10, because we can. It was already 90 degrees at 10 in the morning and I stood close to the pool to take advantage of the splashing. Between my niece and nephew and our friends’ kids and our son’s club and alumni meets, we are attending more swim meets this summer than when we were actual summer swim parents.
And that is all good because attending a swim meet as a spectator is a top ten favorite thing to do for me, and because we all need to get away from the TV and radio coverage and the Godforsaken social media speculation on yesterday’s assassination attempt. The 2024 election just nudged the 2020 election. “Hold my beer,” said 2024 to 2020, smirking.
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Despite Saturday’s events, this weekend was oddly relaxing, even restful. We did everything we had previously planned to do but the heat forced us to slow our pace and take breaks. The next few weeks will be busy and demanding and this weekend was the calm before the proverbial storm. Or maybe it was just calm amid the storm. Maybe that’s the only kind of calm we’re ever gonna get anymore. It’s still ferociously hot and will be so for the next few days, and then it’s supposed to cool down a little bit. The weather, that is. I’m afraid that things are going to feel pretty hot for the next few months, no matter what the thermometer says. Oh to live in less interesting times. Oh to experience precedented events.
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