Words of Mine ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summer Begins Today is Summer Solstice and the longest day of the year. After today the days begin to wane earlier and the nights become longer. The wheel of life turns yet again and it is comforting that some things don't change. One would think that with this changing of the length of days would be the end of summer instead of the beginning. For awhile we won't see the difference as the lengthening of the night will be only a few minutes at a time. There will still be time to barbecue in the early evenings; time spent at the lake or in a park. Kids playing ball or doing whatever kids do during the summer. Can you tell it's been awhile since I've been around children? The thing I miss living here in California is fireflies. I don't know if the firefly shows up elsewhere in northern or southern California but the firefly certainly isn't here on the Central Coast. I remember catching them when we lived in Maine and Kansas, in glass jars with holes in the lids. The fireflies were so much fun to watch. After I had gone to bed, mother or father would come in and get the jar and then release the fireflies outdoors. Only to be caught again on another night. I love today's quote because that does sound like a perfect summer day. However, I wouldn't want the lawn mower broken. When I was a kid I loved mowing the lawn. The house we lived in on Bell Hill in Maine had approximately an acre of lawn. When I first began to mow the yard I had a push mower and this really took some strength to move it along because the ground wasn’t totally flat. There were some hills and dips that made the mowing harder. Later on Dad purchased a mower that would automatically take off on its own and all I had to do was direct it. Mowing with these mowers was time consuming and I would no sooner finish the yard and it would be time to begin again. There was something satisfying with creating that fresh mowed look from the unruly grown grass. Plus the smell of cut grass was like a breath of fresh air. Finally I hit the big time when Dad brought home a riding lawn mower. Now I was somebody as I tooled around the yard on the riding lawn mower. My first opportunity of driving something automated. I was the big gal on the hill! And would you believe I haven't mowed a lawn since moving to California! Although I enjoyed riding around on the lawn mower; it didn't translate into my enjoying driving a car. Driving a car was something else. After I took driving lessons in high school of which I was petrified the whole time and especially when the driving instructor said for me to drive out onto the street and go around the block. Whoooeeeeee, was I scared. I did make it back to the school's parking lot but I never wanted to do it again. My mother procured an old jeep that was standard transmission figuring I wouldn't be out hot rodding in this. I didn't know how to drive a stick shift and the transmission in this thing was horrible. I needed to be a 200 hundred pound girl to get it to shift instead of the measly 98 pound weakling that I was. This vehicle created several arguments between mother and me as I flat out refused to drive the jeep. On top of everything else the jeep was pure ugly and why would I want to be seen in that, I ask you? I know I should have been thankful but the jeep was hideous and it wasn't easy to drive. I spent more time stalling it out than driving around. So, mother took the jeep and did something with it and I went back to being a passenger. It wasn't until I was 23 that I finally got my driver's license and a car to drive and it wasn't an ugly car either. mz. em Quote of the Day A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken. Currently Reading: "A Ghost in the Closet is There an Alcoholic Hiding?" by Michele Dale Mitchel "Lasher" by Anne Rice
Currently Watching: "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" -- A very good movie but makes me very sad about our country and the fact that we vilify Hitler and what he did to the Jews and yet, we did the very same thing to the Native Americans. Is it posted anywhere on how many Indians were killed by our hands in obtaining their lands? 1:20 p.m. - Thursday, Jun. 21, 2007 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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