All In a Summer's Day

It is Friday, not that the day means much in the middle of July. I started the day with defrosting the freezer in the garage. It took no time in the heat that was already cooking up a slight scorch for the day. Once it was done, I kicked DH out of the bed so I could strip the linens for some laundry time. By 9:30 I felt like I had earned my keep. We had Charleston tea on the deck even though the air was already a tad too warm.

DH has the theory that if you just stay outside you will ease into the heat and not notice its discomfort. Well, there is some truth to that, and I decided to share his practice of loving the heat today. Once I got used it, it wasn’t bad most of the time. But those trips back into a frosty house were nice before walking back outside into a blast furnace of the day outside! After the breakfast tea, I made two pitchers of Tropical iced tea which is a delightful choice for summer with passion fruit, kiwi, and lime; we drank it all. At noon we snacked on green peppers and cucumber sticks. At 2:30 we gave into Animal Farm sandwiches made of ham, turkey, salami, smoked Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato and cranberry horseradish on orange raisin bread. He followed his with ice cream and cookies. I hope he doesn’t want any supper!


DH is reading World Enough and Time by Robert Penn Warren, not an easy book to read. I am glad to see him stick with it though, as I have to finish it some day. Meanwhile, I wallowed in an assortment of words. I read in my September book club selection, Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America. It is good but so far I have not gleaned a fount of new information. It covers all the old issues of why people are poor, who is at fault, how can we make education work for the poor as well as the privileged.


I also read in an old poetry book I found on my shelf. Voices from the Interior, Poets of Missouri is a 1981 book published by BKMK Press. I thoroughly enjoyed some of these old, but timeless, poems. In fact, they spurred me to pen some thoughts of my own. I am ending the day with a strong skeleton of a good poem!


Late in the afternoon, thunder grumbled in the distance and the air cooled some. So I took advantage of the moment and got the mower out. I pushed and pushed and got the backyard done. But I was as red as Rudolph’s nose; it wasn’t as cool as I thought. When I came to rest, DH offered to mow the front if I took his book in the house.  You bet I would tote that book inside! So with combined efforts, we have yard done again before hotter days or rain, as the storms are surrounding us but without dumping rain, wind or hail yet.


It has been a good summer’s day.