Monday, August 3, 2009

dog days

there’s a kite in this picture.  can you see it?


The dog days are upon us and I, for one, am glad.  They can’t possibly be any worse than the two months we have already endured this summer and their coming means that summer is nearly over.  Not that I expect September to be any cooler really since it is easily as hot in September as it is in July, but the psychological impact has to count for something, right?  Right?  Oh, please tell me that I am right because I’m about ready to pack it up and head for anywhere it snows...permanently.  Although as irony would have it, the first two days of August were noticeably cooler.  By that I mean it barely got up to triple digits.  Actually, the past two mornings were rather nice.  I wasn’t hit immediately by a blast furnace of air when I opened the door about 7 AM to let the cat out.


here it is


It was a quiet weekend of cooking for the Granddaughter (I do the cooking when the grandkids come to visit, gives Husband a break) and the requisite cleaning afterwards.  Actually the cooking wasn’t that big a deal as all four of the g-kids love to help in the kitchen.  Then there was a water balloon fight with same which lasted about 2 minutes (she ambushed me, waiting for me to emerge from the house in my swim suit).  It took me half an hour to fill all those balloons!  Flew and lost a kite (it now hangs from the tree in the backyard of the neighbor across the street).  Went to my sister’s house for the Collecting Of The Eggs and Feeding Of The Chickens (kitchen scraps which we saved all weekend).  She wanted to make a paper machie piggy bank using one of the water balloons which, by the time we were through, she decided was an egg and not a pig.  And lots of reading.  Autumn still loves to have books read to her, chapter books, as she calls them. 



We made a further step in our oh-so-slow move to the country this weekend.  Since we are now spending 4 nights out of the week in the country, at least while we are between jobs, we moved the Real Actual Bed out there and brought the future guest room mattress back to the city.  We did not bring the extra bed frame though so the box spring and mattress are on the floor, kinda like being young and newly wed again.


My granddaughter asked me what we were going to do with the house when we got moved completely.  


“Just keep it I guess” I told her.


“You could let us use it” she says.


“Us as in who?” I asked her.


“Us kids,” she says, “we could have slumber parties there.”


Every teen movie that had a party while the parents were away went through my head.


“Sorry, hon,” I told her, “I don’t think that’s gonna happen."

11 comments:

  1. hi ellen, this is such a great entry - you shine right out from the words. the kite hidden so carefully among the clouds - we've had a cooler-than-normal summer here, while watching the people out west struggle through a hot dry summer.
    the blend of rain and sun is one of the many blessings - and i mean that word in the fullest sense because i am a transplanted englishperson who loves rain equally as much as sun - of this summer for me. i love the naming of the bed "the real actual bed". it's amazing what an island the "real actual bed" is in terms of defining a place of comfort and connection. the "chapter books" phrase reminded me of my upcoming work as a teacher. i love that kids still see themselves as graduating from picture books to chapter books and are absolutely blown away when they see how many chapters a book has. have a lovely evening. steven

    ReplyDelete
  2. We moved from our apartment over the course of two months. We were going to "live" at the apartment & move non-essential stuff to the house first. Our actual real bed got moved after the first week - we LOVE the house & didn't want to sleep in the apartment anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  3. She means all of us, as you and all the people she knows. It's a childhood fantasy.

    ReplyDelete
  4. steven - Right about now I would love to love some rain. The country house has become home so it's nice to have the real bed there. It's been a long transition though. I think one of the ways to get children to read is to read to them. When mine were young I would read them a chapter a night. We went through many books and now they are both avid readers.

    The Bug - Oh, we've been anxious to be there full time for a while now but we can't work out there til we get the shop built.

    lakeviewer - I guess for that little conversation to make better sense you have to know that they have lived next door to us all their lives and they have had the run of our house. If the door is unlocked, they just come right in. Their house is smaller and there are 6 in the family so having the empty house right next door is tempting...a way to get extra space and some privacy from their siblings.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Our summer had been so much cooler than usual and is just beginning to warm up now. I'll be happy to entertain your hot summer days if you'll endure some of our rain and shivery nights. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. But that would make you the coolest grandma EVER, if you let your grandkids use your extra house for slumber parties!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Slumber party, indeed. That is a wee bit scary.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love textured, fleecy skies! Would never have seen the kite if you hadn't pointed it out.

    And I love it that Autumn calls the live readings "chapters." She is very cool! I would never agree to the slumber party idea though. OMG.

    Hoping cooler days are just ahead for you.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hilary - I would gladly trade for a couple of weeks.

    CatLadyLarew - I know. It was touch and go there for a minute.

    Kathy - I know right? She's 11. I guess she figured it was worth a shot.

    Reya - Thanks. I really liked the clouds myself. They were very cool that day.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Catching up - I love, love, love getting a glimpse of your wonderful grandchildren. And the bone story was great!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Well, you can't blame her for trying, lol. What are you going to do with the other house? I had never thought of that. Somehow I guessed that you would then go about selling it?

    ANd it IS funny when I think aah, it's so nice and temperate (or tolerable) when it's just 98 degrees now... better yet, 89.

    ReplyDelete

I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.