Summer
All of a sudden it's summer. Not the official season of course, but the weather is perfect today. It's the kind of late spring weather that most people wish would be the coming summer weather. Clear blue skies, sunny, 78 degrees, little humidity, and a slight cool breeze make for a fine day. The temperature will go down to 58 tonight leading to refreshing Memorial Day morning for the annual parade in our small town, and then it will rise to 83 during the day for the beach people, as, stretching east, Coney Island, Long Beach, Jones Beach, and Robert Moses State Park will be packed.
All windows down, driving around today doing errands was pleasant. Buying some begonias for the front yard planting space in front of the hedges was the first "chore" to get done. Impatiens apparently have some blight and will not be back for several years. Yeah, I know that it's a little late for optimal planting time, but many others were out doing the same thing. I will not be alone having fully bloomed plants in mid-July. Then on to North Shore Farms for some salad stuff and Ben and Jerry's Vanilla ice cream, a staple here that is no longer available at Whole Foods.
Walking around in light jeans and my spiffy "Daily Yonder" t-shirt, everything seems casually perfect even if the agility here is no longer quite what it once was. This kind of weather always made me yearn for an ocean breeze, a walk on the beach, and sitting on a boardwalk deck eating a hot dog with too much mustard and sauerkraut and fries with ketchup, food that would only taste good at that particular place and at that moment in time. After foregoing the beach for various reasons in recent years, last year I struck out on my own and drove to the best beach in the area at Robert Moses. It was hot and the walk to the best spot was longer than remembered. I spread my towel out, got out a book, and tried to settle in. I stood up and stretched in hopefully a way that was not obtrusive and would be relaxing, and then laid back down on my stomach, book propped up in front of me. Then it hit me. What am I doing lying in the dirt sowing the seeds for another basel cell carcinoma, or at least yet another of multiple biopsies over the years. I packed up and took a sweaty walk to the concession stand, but they had no hot dog buns and their french frying apparatus was broken. I did not want a bunless dog. My beach joy was broken too.
This year there will be, I know, a few weekday walks on the beach and on the boardwalk in t-shirts and jeans or shorts, but the old exuberance for diving into the water and reading in the sun seems to have passed. Maybe, maybe not, for the dive into the ocean.
Welcome warm weather, at least for now.
All windows down, driving around today doing errands was pleasant. Buying some begonias for the front yard planting space in front of the hedges was the first "chore" to get done. Impatiens apparently have some blight and will not be back for several years. Yeah, I know that it's a little late for optimal planting time, but many others were out doing the same thing. I will not be alone having fully bloomed plants in mid-July. Then on to North Shore Farms for some salad stuff and Ben and Jerry's Vanilla ice cream, a staple here that is no longer available at Whole Foods.
Walking around in light jeans and my spiffy "Daily Yonder" t-shirt, everything seems casually perfect even if the agility here is no longer quite what it once was. This kind of weather always made me yearn for an ocean breeze, a walk on the beach, and sitting on a boardwalk deck eating a hot dog with too much mustard and sauerkraut and fries with ketchup, food that would only taste good at that particular place and at that moment in time. After foregoing the beach for various reasons in recent years, last year I struck out on my own and drove to the best beach in the area at Robert Moses. It was hot and the walk to the best spot was longer than remembered. I spread my towel out, got out a book, and tried to settle in. I stood up and stretched in hopefully a way that was not obtrusive and would be relaxing, and then laid back down on my stomach, book propped up in front of me. Then it hit me. What am I doing lying in the dirt sowing the seeds for another basel cell carcinoma, or at least yet another of multiple biopsies over the years. I packed up and took a sweaty walk to the concession stand, but they had no hot dog buns and their french frying apparatus was broken. I did not want a bunless dog. My beach joy was broken too.
This year there will be, I know, a few weekday walks on the beach and on the boardwalk in t-shirts and jeans or shorts, but the old exuberance for diving into the water and reading in the sun seems to have passed. Maybe, maybe not, for the dive into the ocean.
Welcome warm weather, at least for now.
posted by John Borden at 5:17 PM
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