A Busy Season

I'm so very late on posting these pix from our July 4 swim lesson + barbecue. It was such a fun day. We stayed out in the pool so long that my tan hit some sort of threshold so that I darkened at least three shades semi-permanently, and now who knows how long until it fades? Our friends stayed until the very last possible moment before they had to make their way to their families for dinner. The three of us -- husband, son, and I -- climbed up the small hill in our backyard and waited until dark to watch fireworks. Because it's a big fire hazard where we live, we aren't allowed to set off any in our neighborhood. We didn't get much of a show because all the fireworks were kind of far away, but it was a beautiful night. We eventually returned indoors, popped some poppers, and watched the awesome Macy's fireworks show in New York on the telly. My son certainly preferred that to waiting outside for random sparks.

Why the two-week hiatus? Well, I'm not quite sure -- maybe burned out from all the Fluevog excitement from June? But it has been a busy two weeks. The weekends were particularly packed. My husband took his ham radio test and passed with flying colors. I went with friends to a sing-along showing of the film Grease. I enrolled my son in kindergarten. In-laws stayed over for a couple of days. We visited both sides of our families. We went to Universal Studios. We've continued our summer swimming lessons here. I've been reading through several of the books waiting in my Kindle. And my hair is growing out wildly and is in serious need of another good haircut.

Also, somewhere in the middle of all that, my husband got into a car accident, and we're still dealing with the aftermath, insurance process, car rental, etc. No one was hurt, thank goodness, but we're going to need to get a new (used) car; we drive old cars so his was "totaled" -- i.e., it cost more to fix than to get a similar used car. We're sad to say goodbye to his car, and my husband is still a little shaken up from the experience. In almost twenty years of driving, he's never had a serious accident like this.

But it's nice to be back in this space. Summer really is flying by quickly this year, and I enjoy documenting it. It's hard to believe, but school starts for us in early August. That's less than three weeks away! Meanwhile, in the next couple of weeks, I'm hoping to finally be able to harvest some of the vegetables in our garden. It probably won't be as fruitful as last summer's haul, but it will be fun again to eat tomatoes and peppers the same day they're picked. I hope you're all having a great season, wherever you are in the world.

xo, Gladys