Summer

Summer is here, officially here.

Fireflies, fireworks, and fires for marshmallows. Rain storms bringing a blessed breath of cool air.

Warm muggy days filled with slow trains going by, and we run to watch them, standing, sticky but happy, by the tracks, waving at the engineer. They almost always wave back, smiling. When the cars (Sante Fe, Union Pacific, Canadian Pacific), have all passed by us, the ding ding ding has stopped, the waiting cars, if there are any, have gone, we walk slowly back over the grass and clover of the field and find our water glasses.

Some days, like today, we go to the playground, and sit on the swings. It is really too hot to swing, though, so we halfheartedly kick our feet and stay hanging over the same patch of white hot gravel. The pool beckons from the other side of the fence, calling to us. “Come, swim! Be cooled off!”

The pool is treacherous, we know by now. Entire days spent in it give sunburn, headaches, ears full of water, red eyes, and wrinkled toes. It is best to save the pool for the sweltering heat of the afternoon, and it is still morning now. We wait, and sit in the shade, and drink ice water.

The mother cardinal has been sitting on a nest. The eggs hatched out a few days ago. Quiet peeks have so far not resulted in being dive bombed by angry birdie parents.

Yesterday we caught two turtles. Their stubby back legs reminded me of pictures of dinosaurs. The turtle we caught first escaped while we were swimming, and the search for it found the second turtle, smaller, but still interesting and still able to bite my brother, which it did.

Summer is here, definitely here.