How’s your Summer so far?

My summer is pretty good.

I’m more addicted to the computer than ever.  My favorite sites are nytimes.com, boston.com, twitter.com, foursquare.com, weneedavacation.com, epicurious.com, time.com.

I watch less TV than ever.  I used to keep the little kitchen countertop 13″ TV on throughout the day to keep me company.  Now I listen to the birds in my backyard, most of whom devour the sunflower seeds at the feeders suspended from Home Depot wrought iron plant hangers screwed to the window trim.  The birds eat better than I do some days.  This year I added a hummingbird feeder and the little guys stop me in the middle of a conversation in the kitchen and believe me,  it is impossible to stop me in the middle of a conversation so these birds must really be something.

I’m enjoying the social media sites, twitter and foursquare.  It’s funny how you can keep up with friends and people you’ve never met simply by checking in to these sites regularly.

I’m swimming as much as I can; off the boat we keep on Canandaigua Lake this summer, but sometimes in the Thornden Park pool.  I just wish we could bring some kind of lawn chair onto the pool deck to relax and read between laps.  Towels on concrete just don’t cut it. Rules, rules, rules.

My new free default exercise is jumping jacks.  They were laughably easy in gym class during grade school, but now they gang up on me.  Go ahead and see how long you last.  You won’t be laughing anymore. I do them with 5 lbs. weights in each hand for additional punishment.  Great bang for the buck and they’re as close as my solid garage floor.

My daughter leaves for graduate school downstate in a couple more weeks.  Having her with me this summer to share conversation and girl jokes, helping with dishes and joining me shopping or for a glass of wine at the end of the day is something I’ll treasure all my life.

The boys are around and great too but they’re different from girls.  Duh.

The rental season at my Cape Cod house is strong and families are calling to report they had a great week and they enjoyed my artwork on the walls.  I painted my own paintings because I couldn’t afford real artwork done by others.  It cracks me up these families don’t seem to know the difference or at least they don’t care.

I’m amazed at the stuff I’m pulling out of my house to sell on ebay for extra cash.  Just when I thought I sold all the stuff I haven’t used or worn for two years, there’s always more.  The old saying “I wish I had a nickel for everything I bought and didn’t use” is trumped on ebay where you can get much more than a nickel.

In spite of this splendid summer of sunny days and warm temperatures, of children around me and flowers that thrive, of cooking that gets a little better all the time, I wish I had more time to read books, to spend time with friends, to write handwritten notes to pals around the country, to visit my elderly aunt Marion in the nursing home in Massachusetts.  I wish had willpower to resist potato chips.  I wish I liked my coffee with a little less cream and a little less sugar, but alas…..  I wish cheese didn’t taste so good.  I wish I liked yogurt more than I do and whole wheat bread which I gave up trying to like years ago for tasting like a wad of sawdust in my mouth and ruining a perfectly good sandwich.

I wish the varicose vein running down the back of my leg would disappear instead of get worse, but at least it doesn’t hurt and thank goodness it’s in the back of my leg instead of the front because I don’t know what I would do if I had to see it every time I look in the mirror.  God placed a whole bunch of stuff happening in the back of women that they should never know about.

On the whole I’m doing pretty well this summer.  I’ve had one small flare up of poison ivy and I don’t have the body chemistry that attracts mosquitoes.  The lawn stays green with no effort. Things could be much worse.

And you?  How are you doing this summer?

Tagged as: summer, vacations