Summer Days

Today's post comes from the writing prompt at The One Minute Writer .  If you are unfamiliar with this site-check it out the next time you are lacking inspiration for your own blog or writing.  Each day, a new prompt is listed, and you are supposed to spend one minute, writing freely about that topic.  Of course, me being me, it took me more than a minute just to write out this explanation, so you KNOW it's going to take me more than a minute once I finally get around to writing what I actually came here to write about. 

Two "fun facts" for you about me if you haven't been here long: 1.  I pretty much always waste spend at least a paragraph telling you all about what I'm going to be telling you before I actually tell you.  Got that? It's the teacher in me, I guess. 2.  I'm a rule bender.  I don't break laws (unless you count speeding, which I totally pretend not to), and I believe that rules are a good thing, however, I bend them to suit my needs, and generally feel pretty justified in doing so.  So now, the point of this post...because, remember? I told you there was going to be one...

I've always loved summer.  Long, sunny warm days, that seem carefree, even though as an adult, I work on many of these days.  Thinking of school starting in less than a month gives me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, even though it's not me that will be going back to school.  I just love the laziness of summer-not having to get my kids up and rushed out the door in the morning, not having to make them do homework when I fell like they should be relaxing and playing outside after a busy day of learning...

As a little kid, I remember getting up in the morning, pulling on my hand-me-down, Incredible Hulk green Toughskins cut off shorts, a polyester striped shirt (hey, it was the late 70's, early 80's!), and flip flops (which we innocently called "thongs" back then), and heading outside to ride my Big Wheel.  I loved my Big Wheel so much-I really do wish they made them for grown ups! Usually, I'd ride with Charlie, the little kid down the street.  He was kind of mean, and younger than me, and peed on trees a lot, but he really liked me, and was afraid of my Mom, so it was all good.  Plus, he was pretty much the only kid around to play with, most of the time.

Charlie and I would ride up and down the sidewalk, racing each other, purposely crashing into each other, and usually, pretending we were the Dukes of Hazard.  Sometimes we were CHiPS, but only when Jeffrey, the CHiPs obsessed kid down the street joined in, but that wasn't often.  (I still remember Jeffrey's CHiPS themed orange big wheel...)  We'd take turns playing Bo or Luke, or Enos or Roscoe. Yeah, I'm a girl, but really, Daisy was no fun to play-she just wasn't very bright, and we knew that. One of us would chase the other down the street, ram in to the back of the other's Big Wheel, and then the person in front would flip over their vehicle, pretending to be "crashed."  As I recall, the storyline didn't go much beyond the chasing and crashing, although occasionally, stolen "money", that was actually dried out grass clippings, was involved.

After tiring of this, we'd  usually head to his house or mine for some Kool Aid, then run to the nearest swingset, where we'd play Kool Aid-mustached circus acrobats, airplane pilots or house, until Charlie did something mean and made me mad. I'd go inside for a while and pout, and then later, we'd meet up again-either Big Wheeling, or climbing the crab apple tree in my front yard.  That tree was many things-sometimes it was the Duke's farm house, other times it was a house for our dolls (when I could talk him into it, and yes, when a boy's best friend is a little girl, chances are, he'll own at least one doll, no matter how masculine he is, or how many trees he pees on), or a Star Wars ship (when he could talk me into it).  We spent lots of time jumping out of that tree, or swinging from a branch, trying to impress each other (unsucessfully) with our fancy tricks.

Although I don't really miss Charlie, or watching him pee in random places (what WAS that about , anyway?), I do kind of miss those carefree sunny days, when I could play all day, and not have to think about when my next bowl of Spaghetti-O's would be served.  I could pedal along, hearing the pleasing sound of my Big Wheel "roaring" down the side walk, getting suntanned (no one worried about skin cancer back then), scraped up and mosquito bitten.  Life was good, and this was kid-life at it's best!

The kids in the pictures are a (pre-Charlie era) 4 year old me, and my husband.  Don't you love my knee socks, Mom-made outfit, and "don't mess with me and my cool hawg" scowl?

Summer Fun Facts

Not actually our Slip N Slide.

Fact #1-A brand new Slip N Slide has a lifespan of about 2 hours when 7 kids (5 being boys) have been playing on it.

Fact #2-When you set up a Slip N Slide in your yard, kids you may not even know will show up in your yard wearing swimming trunks within 2 minutes flat.

Fact #3-7 and 8 year old boys don't care how many other boys are in the tiny wading pool.  They will find a way to fit in there somehow, even if they only stay in for a few minutes, before they decide that it would be great fun to slide down the swingset slide with wet pants on.  They will have more grass tracked into the pool within 30 seconds than you knew you had in the whole yard.  They will also inevitably take turns shoving the running hose down their trunks until you catch them and make them stop.

Poor Slip N Slide.  When I was a kid, all we got was a long plastic sheet, and a water sprinkler.  (It was rough back then.) Nowadays, they have all of these annoying fun inflatable parts.  Of course when I brought the thing home, I couldn't find the attachment for the bicycle pump to blow up the inflatable things.  So, I had to hold the thingie (technical term) right next to the air valve doohickie (being technical again), and pump away in the 90 degree heat.  That was fun.  Then, I had even more fun.  Have you ever seen a cartoon where there's a water hose, and the water just kind of bulges up in one area of the hose? Yeah, you can tell this won't end well, right?  Well, when I hooked the hose to the Slip N Slide, I watched, paralyzed in shock, as the water just bulged up in the tube thingamajig (I hope I'm not losing anyone with all the techie speak), and then popped open.  Great.  I managed to get it repaired with duct tape (best invention ever), and it actually worked! For a while. Until the inflatables at the end popped, and eventually ripped off.  At least it was sort of cheap.  Except for the water bill that will be coming.

Fact #4- The same moody, (dare I say, hormonal? Dear God, please no! Not yet!) 9 year old girl who was just crying dramatically because she wanted to be able to play on the Slip N Slide without a bunch of "little first grade boys" (she didn't like it when I said, "Well technically, they're all 2nd graders now!), will end up in the wading pool later happily barking and howling like a dog with a 4 year old, and 7 and 8 year old. 

Fact #5 No matter what, popsicle wrappers are drawn like magnets to my yard.  Even with stern lectures about the easy availability of trashcans.  Maybe popsicle wrappers like Slip N Slides, too.

Summer's End

I've been mourning the end of summer for a couple of weeks now. I love summer, so I hate to see it end. Sure, according to the calendar, and the typical weather patterns, there's plenty of summer left, but for all practical purposes, we've reached it's end. School starts for my kids on Wednesday. I'm not looking forward to getting everyone up early and out the door to meet the bus everyday. I'm also not looking forward to the fact that our time together as a family will be dramatically shortened-my husband works an unusual schedule, so there will be entire days where he only sees the kids for a few minutes in the mornings. My work schedule fits around his, so there aren't many times where we will all be together as a family. So, I've not been looking forward to the start of school.

Today, I took my kids to the park in a neighboring town. The plan was to let them have fun running around and playing, while I read a good book on a park bench in the shade. The park was deserted-apparently school had already started there. The monkeys ran around for a few minutes playing together, until my daughter decided she didn't want to play with her brother and sat down under the fancy, barn-shaped playset, with a bored and tired look on her face. My son came over and sat next to me on the bench and stared off into space. Neither could be encouraged to move. Barely 10 minutes had gone by since we arrived. I wasn't ready to leave yet-I wanted to read my book, and honestly, I wasn't ready to return home to my sink full of dishes, and too-quiet house. The kids just sat, until my husband, who is out of town for a work meeting, called. Then, as they always seem to do when I'm on the phone, the kids got up and started pestering each other. Seriously, what is it about perfectly calm kids acting like maniacs when Mom is on the phone? There must be a subconscious message in a phone ring that tells kids "you must yell and scream and act as obnoxious as possible while Mom is talking". I actually remember my brother and I doing the same thing to our poor mother, but I can't remember why we did it. Anyhow, I have to say that I was actually a little pleased when they started throwing mulch and acorns at each other, because they were actually up moving and having fun again! (Hey, I warned you that I was an "imperfect" Mom, right?) But, as the saying goes, it's always fun until someone gets hit in the head with an acorn... (Don't worry, she was perfectly fine).

Anyhow, we reluctantly schlepped back to the van, swung by McD's for dinner, and went home, where everyone is staring at tv or computer screens, or both. The point of all this, (and surprise! I actually have one this time!) is that I suppose we are ready for summer's end after all. When the prospect of a beautiful, sunny, warm day, and free run of a park playground doesn't get you excited anymore, then it's time for a change.

Tomorrow, we get to go to the school, and find out where the monkey's classrooms are. My daughter is beside herself with excitement, and while my son says he isn't excited at all, I think he, too, will enjoy the change in routine. I'll get back into the routine of working more, and when I'm home, you'll find me sitting on the porch, reading a book, enjoying the rest of the summer.