Summer snippet

Finally watched "Solo" with the boys, who naturally got quite the kick out of it. I don't remember now if there's a creature in it which prompted the discussion, if he was thinking of "Pirates of the Caribbean", or if Liam's imagination is the culprit, but we had a conversation about a space kraken. He quipped, "it'd be a spraken!" Makes sense to me. 

Liam's at Fusion camp this week, so the Resident Nine Year Old spent the day at the pool with me yesterday. He is happy as a clam plummeting off the diving boards, tooling around in the lazy river, soaking up sunbeams on his deck chair while ensconced in my floppy hat, or splashing around in the shallower pool. I am also happy as a clam as I get to sun and read in relative peace. One of Carrie's favorite comic strips is called "Strange Planet" by Nathan W. Pyle, and we have a running joke about the one featuring "star damage". You can find it here ; have fun perusing his strip. It's very entertaining! 

I don't know if everyone is having the same issue with bugs and weeds that we are and if it's because of the incredibly wet spring and the lack of rain now or what, but mosquitoes and some unidentified but apparently ravenous type of bug have eaten me alive this year. I have a sneaking suspicion something crawled into bed with me, twice, and has nibbled all over. The only conclusion I can draw is that I am quite tasty. It leaves itchy raised bumps like a mosquito bite, but the tips fill with fluid like a blister. Any idea what special level of Hades that happens to be? Not a big fan, I must confess. So I'm out there watering the garden before 7 AM in jeans, boots, a hoodie, with my shirt and pants tucked in, gloves, and a baseball cap sprayed with bug repellent, waving the bugs away from my face. This morning I ended up in a cloud of gnats who decided it'd be fun to hover under the brim of my baseball cap. Ugh. How is it that the tomato plants look the same as they did when I transplanted them yet the weeds have covered every inch of available space and then some? I could tear everything out and then the next day they're back again. Persistent little buggers! I do have one tiny cucumber though, yay!

We hosted the June and July birthdays for Dada's Krav Maga group last Saturday. It was a small turnout but that just means we got a lot of fun out of a smaller group of people. And it means we had to clean first. If you want to see our bar clear, some right after we have a party, haha! That's the only time any of our horizontal surfaces are ever free. We also witnessed a kettle of vultures cruising overhead for probably a solid ten minutes. They like to roost on the neighboring funeral home (how fitting is that? I find it funny and a bit spooky) and in the parking lot. They're probably the same ones who circle hopefully whenever I'm riding along the bike trail...

Damon has a bluebird visitor that we've been spotting with some regularity. We used to see him at the bus stop while we waited, but I've seen him swooping around out back above the ditch/creek and he was back out by the bus stop when we retrieved the garbage and recycling bins yesterday. Liam's favorites are still the goldfinches, which we often hear chattering from "up high" in the branches, "po-ta-to chip, po-ta-to chip" and he never fails to light up when he hears them.

We've been going through a lot of Gatorade, library books, bug spray, sunscreen, and ice cream this summer. How about you? The roofers aren't finished yet and I've been trying to hold off on planting some of my flower seeds because they'll end up right where the rest of the old shingles will be dropped. I don't know if I should just give up and get them in the ground and hope for the best or if I should just give up for the year completely. I suppose I could round up enough pots to just try them that way, but that seems like more work than I want to do. Summer is supposed to be a break, right? 

Happy Hump Day!