Wednesday, July 21, 2010

When Stars Fell to Earth

It has been wonderful to come home from work and relax in the community garden and patio with my neighbors from time to time. I like all of them and we have fun. We all work in the garden. The other night we all brought out some musical instruments and sang and played for a while. Some nights we grill and drink.

When I was a kid, summer meant lots of baseball, basketball, running through sprinklers and swimming. Bicycling too, although I have more memories of riding my bike to deliver a daily newspaper route than the kinds of riders we see all around us today. If there was one thing I would have done most back then, it was play baseball. Well, softball actually. That was a lot bigger where I lived. Chicago might have been the only city where we used to hit with bats but field the ball barehanded. When I lived other places they always used gloves. They always had this kind of astonished look on their faces when you tell them that you played ball without gloves.

Today, I have a different appreciation for a summertime feel. I do my workouts in the rec center where it is air conditioned and I have no risk of sunburn. I do, however find it very sexy when a woman is sweating a bit and it glistens on her skin. Gym sweat is one kind of aphrodisiac, and droplets that sparkle in the moonlight is another. I like the feel of the cool breeze in the evening, and the rainstorms when we get them.

Kicking back with a drink with some friends and neighbors as we watch the sun go down and the moon come up just has that summertime feel to it. We let go of any thoughts of work or stresses about it, and just talk and joke and get happy.

We tasted the first fresh tomatoes off the vine yesterday. I have been enjoying fresh basil in my lunches for a couple weeks now. I'm going to make a pitcher of cold infusion basil tea with a little citrus zest.

Don't seem to see as many lightning bugs anymore. I like them, and in the summers you could always count on seeing those magical little lights, especially when you have a background of trees and shrubs. There were times when there were so many that it looked like stars that fell to earth, only instead of crashing, they floated in the air around us.

Enjoy the taste of the fullness of summer. It is sweet, isn't it?

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