Summer-ized

It's the middle of August. Usually in the middle of August it is blazing hot outside and the heat is rising off the pavement. You really can fry an egg on the sidewalk!  But today, in the middle of August and only 65 degrees out.  It is too cold. I have to admit, I have been summer-ized.  I love summer.  It is my favorite time of year.  Not only is it warm and sunny, but I tend to spend time outside as often as possible, even if it is just sitting on the back step.  Usually it is just sitting outside, but not this summer.  This summer has been less pain. This summer has been walking. This summer has been Momo.

In the summertime, I remember sitting outside, looking at the clouds and then staying out and waiting for the lightening bugs to show up--then catching them in a jar to watch them light up. I did the same thing with my son when he was little. We walk down a dirt road to our friends house...jumping in the neighbor's pool when it was so hot out and we didn't have a pool. Later on taking my kids to the pool everyday for the entire day. Great suntans. Loads of fun. Great memories.

Summer means drippy ice cream cones and eating them as fast as you can without a brain freeze. It's watching the planes come in at Bradley. Listening to the crickets and the frogs make so much noise you wonder how you will fall asleep later...but you do, listening to the crickets and the frogs singing. I still love these sounds. They bring me back to a different summer, a simpler time.

Summer is a great time for day trips and tons of photographs...and I am all about the photographs! Going to the beach, the fireman's carnivals, summer fairs and roaring campfires. I love it. All of these things give me something to photograph. They remind me of the summers I had as a kid, the summers I had with a kid, and the summer I am currently having with a puppy.  

And this year, since we have a new puppy, summer means walking.  Walking like I haven't walked in almost 20 years.  Not because I didn't want to, but because I couldn't.  Arthritis is a horrible thing.  But this summer has been wonderful because I am walking.  Until this summer, going for a 45 minute walk was something I could only dream about. I am not sure what changed this year but for the first time in 17 years I have been able to go for a walk. I love it!

Typically, as it gets colder, pain sets in and so does hibernating in the upstairs of my house...where the heat rises.   In the winter, throughout the winter, I just say to myself...only 89 more days of being cold...only 70 more days of winter...only 42 more days of freezing my fanny off!  I can get through this. Oh my goodness! Why is it still freezing??!  I hate being cold. I really hate it.

But for right now, summer is still here.  It may be only 65 degrees outside, but it isn't freezing. I am hanging onto every drop of summer I can.  And for now I am taking walks with my puppy.  Hopefully it will last. But no matter what, I will always have this summer and being summer-ized.