You would not know it from watching the mercury bead on the vintage Peters Weatherbird Thermometer on our kitchen porch, but it seems summer is actually winding down. Summer break, that is.
Monday on the way to the office I noticed several cars switch on their blinkers and turn into the parking lot at one of the schools and my wife, Danny, a teacher by trade, has been making plans to head to her school this week, or next, and get the classroom set up and ready for the arrival of the kiddos in another week or so. Of course lots of us don’t get a summer break anyway, and in Danny’s case she opted to teach summer school during the month of June so her break was broken up as well.
I’ll whine for a minute and say we usually spend a week at the beach during the summer months but this year we didn’t even do that. Last year’s Hurricane Michael, which wiped out a good bit of the Florida beachfront property, forced many of this year’s travelers up into the Fort Morgan, Alabama, area where we’ve been enjoying the sun and sand for about 20 years now. With them came some pretty jacked up prices for even some of the, what I might call, mediocre vacation dwellings.
We kept our money in our pockets and did yard work, and gardening, and junking around at some local junk spots and dreamed of our little spot in paradise on the beach.
We are, on the other hand, planning to take a few days in the fall and pack up the car and head south and take advantage of the “off peak” discounts at one of those same little Gulf front properties that we opted against this summer. Several years ago we went to Destin for a long weekend the week before Christmas and it was really nice. We’re going to give it a try in October and see how we like it. I’m giving it a thumbs up already.
Staycationing (staying at home instead of going anywhere) is not so bad...most of the time. It gets a little boring watching the same cows doing the same thing and mowcationing (riding on the lawnmower for hours on end) really gets “mow”notonous.
Last week our staycation did take an exciting turn when, while walking our dirt road from house to the highway and back, Danny and I spied a young skunk trying to climb a muddy ditch bank. Unfortunately one of the dogs spied it too and seconds later the air was thick, and our eyes were burning, as the skunk released its fury on the dog.
Danny and I did not actually get sprayed, but we were close enough that for the rest of the evening we just couldn’t shake that smell. The dog sure couldn’t shake it as she slid face first in the water filled ditch and jumped into the pond for a double dip. It didn’t work but finally the heavy rains from the remanents of Hurricane Barry cleaned her up pretty good.
But then less than a week later on the same walk, in about the same spot, the same little skunk was crossing back across the road to the cow pasture when we spied it, and yes, the dog and the other dog both spied it, and the same thing happened all over again. We were beginning to believe we should change our nightly walking route. We may still do so, but those dogs will never learn!
The weather prognosticators were predicting earlier this week that we would be experiencing a “rare July cold front” and it may or may not have been “cooler” the last couple of days but I’m here to tell you that in my book there is nothing “cold” about 88 degrees.
In the end we sincerely hope everyone is enjoying these last few weeks of summer break and if you got to go to the beach this year, good for you, just don’t expect me to look at your pictures with a sincere smile on this face!
