After the 4th
After a long Winter and a damp gloomy Spring, we finally had some hot weather last week just in time for the 4th of July. It reached 90 degrees which is considered unbearably hot here in the Northwest. With that, it seemed like Summer had finally arrived.
Before we have had a chance to enjoy some lazy days and a “vacation” feel to things, it is time to go Back To School. Oh wow. I am so far behind the curve. Remember the days when school started after Labor Day? When you had a week to buy new school shoes and a few very basic supplies from the list you were handed the first day.
Today’s Sunday paper included an inch-high stack of ads for school clothes and school supplies, and Wal-Mart has posted the supply lists for every grade at every school in the region. I can’t believe all the things kids have to provide today. But I love using this opportunity to stock up on office supplies…paper, notebooks, pens, highlighters, and scotch tape.
And I have to admit…I won’t be sorry to see the neighborhood urchins back in the classroom for a few hours a day. Another change I have noticed besides the early mid-summer start date is the shortening of the school day. Kids in the park catch a bus at 9:00 a.m. and are home and playing in the street before 2:00 p.m. These are not kindergarteners. Middle school! High school gets home by 3:00 p.m.
This is a quiet Sunday morning with everyone sleeping in, exhausted no doubt from the ten-day long celebration of Independence Day. Two weekends with an explosive Wednesday in the middle. All designed to torture old ladies and dogs. I am glad to see the fireworks stand down the road finally closed and shuttered. And the kiddies seem to have run out of matches.
Princess, being bred as a hunting dog, has a genetic predisposition to freeze at the sound of a gunshot (or firecracker) and wait for a bird to fall from the sky. She is not bothered by the incessant popping and bursts of loud sound. Buddy, on the other hand, is hearing impaired and does not hear the normal level of sound. So the big noises surprise and startle him. He also is afraid of the flashes of light. We have spent a lot of time in the back part of the house with the shades drawn and blankets thrown over the dog crates. The cats just go to ground and are not seen for days.
So now the summer money-wasting ritual is over and we are on the far side of the slope toward Fall. I’ll enjoy this summer Sunday sitting with my knitting and watching Wimbledon and feeling the gentle breeze through the window that it is finally safe to open.
After a long Winter and a damp gloomy Spring, we finally had some hot weather last week just in time for the 4th of July. It reached 90 degrees which is considered unbearably hot here in the Northwest. With that, it seemed like Summer had finally arrived.
Before we have had a chance to enjoy some lazy days and a “vacation” feel to things, it is time to go Back To School. Oh wow. I am so far behind the curve. Remember the days when school started after Labor Day? When you had a week to buy new school shoes and a few very basic supplies from the list you were handed the first day.
Today’s Sunday paper included an inch-high stack of ads for school clothes and school supplies, and Wal-Mart has posted the supply lists for every grade at every school in the region. I can’t believe all the things kids have to provide today. But I love using this opportunity to stock up on office supplies…paper, notebooks, pens, highlighters, and scotch tape.
And I have to admit…I won’t be sorry to see the neighborhood urchins back in the classroom for a few hours a day. Another change I have noticed besides the early mid-summer start date is the shortening of the school day. Kids in the park catch a bus at 9:00 a.m. and are home and playing in the street before 2:00 p.m. These are not kindergarteners. Middle school! High school gets home by 3:00 p.m.
This is a quiet Sunday morning with everyone sleeping in, exhausted no doubt from the ten-day long celebration of Independence Day. Two weekends with an explosive Wednesday in the middle. All designed to torture old ladies and dogs. I am glad to see the fireworks stand down the road finally closed and shuttered. And the kiddies seem to have run out of matches.
Princess, being bred as a hunting dog, has a genetic predisposition to freeze at the sound of a gunshot (or firecracker) and wait for a bird to fall from the sky. She is not bothered by the incessant popping and bursts of loud sound. Buddy, on the other hand, is hearing impaired and does not hear the normal level of sound. So the big noises surprise and startle him. He also is afraid of the flashes of light. We have spent a lot of time in the back part of the house with the shades drawn and blankets thrown over the dog crates. The cats just go to ground and are not seen for days.
So now the summer money-wasting ritual is over and we are on the far side of the slope toward Fall. I’ll enjoy this summer Sunday sitting with my knitting and watching Wimbledon and feeling the gentle breeze through the window that it is finally safe to open.
posted by Free Spirit at 8:53 AM
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