Books Of Summer

When I was in elementary school our teacher had us read To Kill a Mockingbird over the summer. She explained to us that it was summer book, that as soon as school ended she dug out her old Harper Lee novel and read it to start her summer. At the time I tried to figure out how a book could capture a season, it made no sense to me. Now I understand what she means.

For the past three years I have read a Barbra KingSolver book in the summer time. I just finished reading Bean Trees and feel that I can only do justice to her books if they are read in the summer time under a shady tree on a hot day. The way she writes about nature and it’s meaning in her books make you want to be surrounded by it. What is a better excuse to get yourself outside then a book?

Go For Low Ground

Friday was a stormy day. After days of sunshine and heat the weather gods decided to throw Boston a curve ball and cool things down. From inside of the hospital the storm seemed like a normal thunderstorm. Thunder, lightning, pelting rain, the standard storm.

The walk home from the hospital was a different story. Everywhere I looked around my house there was destruction. Trees down, car windows smashed from rough branches, police directing traffic from down lights.

All that I could think of the destruction was that it had to be a tornado. I know tornados do not frequent the East Coast but my mind wondered back to all the tornado drills we went through in school. Sitting in the computer lab of my elementary school, fingers interlaced behind my neck to protect my head should the school be sucked off the ground by a wind tunnel. The safety tips we reviewed in school every year: find a room without a window, find low ground and huddle in a ball.

On my walking home on Friday I was a bit panicked that I have no low ground on my third story apartment so that if the storm kicked up again I would be sucked out of my house and end up in Oz. So I did the most sensible thing I could, packed a change of clothing and headed to Steve’s. His house has a basement and areas with no windows.

That’s Nuts

I walk to work at 6 a.m. and usually I’m one of half a dozen people making their way to the T. It’s peaceful usually. Peaceful enough for all the squirrels at the park by my house to be chilling out and eating the random acorn they find. It’s not unusual for me to see the squirrels in under one tree pigging out. Then last week I came around the corner and in front of the bus stop one particular squirrel had hit the jack-pot. He held in his paws a Snickers bar. The roasted nuts covered in chocolate were all for him to enjoy to his bushy tail’s delight. He sat there nibbling at his treasure while I watched him from afar.

He must have heard me because he dropped the candy and ran up a tree leaving the tasty treat to be discovered by another squirrel.

Playing in the Sand

Last week when Adrianne and I went to the beach we wanted to build a nice sandcastle. We bought some buckets and shovels at CVS and were ready to build a castle that would rival a second grader’s. Once at the beach our passion diminished and we spent the time reading and relaxing in the sun.

This week I went to the beach to see the sandcastle building competition.


King of the beach

Go Vikings?

Their sculptures put our ideas of sand art to shame even though they have the advantage of imported sand and expirence. It gives us all something to strive for.

A Summer Time Cold

It started on the 4th of July when I slept on an old futon at Steve’s house. He had family in town and being the polite host he is, let them have his clean air-conditioned room and bed. This left him and me on a futon that has been in his house for an unknown number of years. Just sitting on it made a cloud of dust and cat hair billow up. So I spent the night coughing and wheezing and thought that I would find relief once morning came. I was wrong.

Apparently the lapse was enough for some opportunistic bacteria to take hold of my nasal cavity and make it a home. I’ve spent the last few days now with a stuffed up nose, sore throat and plugged ears. My balance is off which leads to a number of clumsy things I’ve done. It’s been the type of cold where you feel tired but can’t sleep due to the misery of sinus pain and a constant runny nose. “I didn’t think you could get a cold in the summer!” I wined to Steve last night at two in the morning as we had both been woken up by my nose needing to be relieved. It appears you can, and let me tell you that it is no fun. But the dawn in breaking, I feel better then I did yesterday and hopefully I will feel better tomorrow.

The Lightweights

After what seems like endless days of working and multiple nights of staying in I’ve found that my alcohol tolerance has dropped to zero. Last weekend I went out to a bar with my cousins and after 2 beers I was drunk. After three beers I had to cut myself off.

Steve and I went out with some people from work. We staggered home at midnight both too drunk to make sense out of what the other was saying.
“This will not do,” I declared over our hang-over breakfast of home fries and French toast, “we need to go into spring training.” I proposed we stick to a strict schedule of at least a few every few days and going out on the weekend. Some say we might be alcoholics, I think it’s sensible for what we are in for with all the weddings we have coming up.