Weblog 283

July 17, 2011~ 12:00 am
Here we are, deep in the dog days of summer. Everything.............. droops. Humid wet air sticks to the skin like cotton candy, the air one breathes is in chunks. There is a torpor over all.



There's a golden buttery toffee look to things..... I imagine everything covered in damp pollen, yellow and fecund. Folks LOVE summer but for the life of me, I cannot see the draw. (Even Wayne, when we spoke on Saturday, said how he'd loved running that afternoon. How he loves the hot sun and the good sweat.) You'd have to hold a gun to my head to even make me consider it....different strokes I suppose. But I've never gotten what the luster is that folks attach to summer days (or EXERCISE, for that matter. Hate it too.) I don't feel invigorated, I feel oppressed. Heavy-limbed.

No, on days such as the one just past (and, oh lord) --the ones coming up next week, all clarity leaves me. I live in a state of 'muddlement'-- (probably not a word, but should be.)



Where others find bright days and excitement, contentment, I am lost in webs of slightly depressive clouds. I am 'not me'. I am prisoner of the season and the climate, severely out of step with those around me. I wake in dread and I go to sleep in exhausted surrender, knowing that the added noise of summer folk cavorting and cranking up, the too bright light and too hot, wet air will envelope me and I'll stay that way with no escape for weeks.

We did have a pleasant meal with Holly on Saturday evening. Husband Gary and both grandkids were camping-- but Holly had been scheduled to work both days this weekend and still wanted to visit with us. It was nice to have adult conversation and to sample her simmered, home grown vegetables, sip coffee and relax. (And.......her house now has AIR-CONDITIONING!!) Even the big standard poodles were lazing about, flopped on the cool hardwood floor and enjoying the lowered temperatures. (I envy them. LOL!!)

But back home again, sweating and slightly headachy, I stew in my own juices and long only for my cooled down bedroom and a book. Sunday afternoon will bring mum's celebration of her 91st birthday as we gather at my sister's house. I'll be picking her up at the usual time for my Sunday visit, then driving her to Kathy's house... and dang!, the chunk chocolate I bought for her is the DARK variety, not the milk chocolate she prefers. So there'll be a side trip first for me to return it, sales slip in hand, and get the kind she likes. I HATE when I shop too fast and don't pay attention!! (See?? The heat has rendered me simple.)

Soon I'll be forgetting directions in the car, putting my pants on backwards and brushing my hair with the toilet scrubber. I just KNOW IT. Summer is the season of being addled for me. It's begun........ it's not even August yet.




July 17, 2011~ 2:30 pm
Swimming up from the coolness of my room, and the long night's sleep



all I want to do is linger there-- surrounded by blue, and dreams like jellies rising quietly in their silent pool..... but.....no. It's out into the day I go-- sweat starting. (I hope I don't turn cross. First stop, the grocery store to exchange the blasted candy. LOL!!) Wish me luck.




July 19, 2011~ 8:15 pm
So today was the ACTUAL DAY....'the' birthday. Mum's 91st.



(Instead of a cake, we had what the ladies at Table 6 like even BETTER...APPLE PIE. Cinnamon and sugar filled, and very, very deep dish tasty.) My sister picked it up at King's and brought along birthday plates and napkins. The kitchen must have misunderstood, because they set a table for just the three of us next to the beloved gals of Table 6......(but we snuck back over at dessert time, and had a grand old time.)

Elizabeth, who's in a wheelchair, had Kay, who's in her 90's and all but blind, push her back to her room before dinner so she could snag a birthday card for mum....and a DISPOSABLE CAMERA. After we'd feasted and had our pie, Elizabeth whipped the camera out and we took pose after pose of the group- first my sister Kathy snapping, then me -as Elizabeth kept insisting, "MORE! MORE! USE THEM ALL!" We were laughing so hard as I snapped pictures of the staff, pictures of the table, the ceiling, the rug.....LOL!!...and still the blasted LIGHT was LIT on the camera. I'd try to give it back to her, but... "No. LIGHT IS LIT. MORE! MORE!" (MY sister had to make a beeline for the ladies room, laughing so hard after so many cups of decaffinated coffee, she was ready to BURST!)

A FUN TIME WAS HAD BY ALL. WE'VE GOT PICTURES TO PROVE IT! Everyone showing their dentures.... eyes shiny with laughter and tears. That was the 91st, at Assisted Living. Wouldn't have missed it for the world.




July 20, 2011~ 5:00 pm
I read something today that made me LAUGH MY ASS OFF!!!

"Pittsburgh Steelers jersey, size XXXL, preferably black; facial hair, preferably goatee or chin strappy beard; baseball cap, preferably something in a florescent shade of camouflage or a piece that reflects a strong allegiance to a NASCAR driver......there is no city on Earth that can equal the utter sloppiness of Pittsburgh."

CLICK on the big black and gold 3 to read 'GQ's' assessment. We didn't beat out NUMBER 1...Boston, or NUMBER 2, Los Angeles, but there's always next year. We'll keep tryin'.... just like the Pirates baseball team this year... we'll get there, just you wait!

(The thing that delights me about this GQ article, is thinking about all the snobby, rich Pittsburghers this is gonna piss off BIG TIME! LOL!) They'll BRISTLE in the toney suburbs, I have no doubt... but we're slobs. And we know it! Aaaaaaaand......we're COMFORTABLE.





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