What a whirlwind the past few months have been. From the moment school was out, we have been rushing to day-camp, sleep-away camp, work, appointments, trying to make time for BBQ’s, beach fun, making jam, sunscreen application, water parks, camping. I am sure everyone has had a similar version of that scenario this summer. I am sort of relieved to be heading back to schedules and cooler weather.
For those of you answering the ubiquitous, ‘What I Did this Summer” question that will be asked over and over again in the coming weeks, I offer this twist for your consideration; “What I Learned this Summer”,
– the more I have to do on a single day, the higher the likelihood that someone will call to make an appointment on a property that has had zero interest the previous 6 months.
– if you leave a pot of jam cooking on the stove and then sit down to catch up on “a couple” of emails, you will definitely come back to carnage (especially impressive if using a red shade of fruit).
– if someone invites you to meet them at the beach on a Saturday afternoon at 2 and claims “they always find parking”, they are lying.
– clove oil actually does keep the wasps away.
– mosquito spray does not keep the mosquitoes away.
– the amount of alcohol you buy for a back yard BBQ is inversely proportionate to the amount you will actually consume during the event as evidenced by the regular “binner” who frequents our back alley after the weekends. (I can only assume the bottles have babies while they are chillin’ away inside the coolers, that or generous guests).
– Value Village “summer wear” is double the price in July and August (it’s donated for crying out loud!).
– the later the kids go to bed, the earlier they will wake up the next day, wait what?
– 16 Candles is still a great movie after all these years.
– if you are making pepper jelly, without the aid of surgical gloves, you should wait a day or two for the capsaicin on your hands to disburse before getting amorous with your mate.
– happiness is an empty agenda, a hot sunny day, sand, ocean breeze and a cardboard take-away box full of fried onion rings.
I hope you all had a great couple of months. We have been absolutely blessed with the best summer weather. No wonder people pay so much to live here!