Summer

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GUESS WHAT HAPPENED

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I can’t even make this up.

If you read my end of summer post recently, you know that my kids had one request at the beginning of this summer: get ice cream from an ice cream truck. How hard could that be? I pinky promised.

I don’t even know how many weekends we arranged our plans around finding an ice cream truck. We’d go to a playground we don’t usually go to because we’d heard that the truck goes there. Or we’d take the long way around and drive by a few schools or soccer fields to see if we could find it. We always promised ice cream, so we’d end up at a local place at the end, which kept everyone happy, but no ice cream truck.

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Lake Winnipesaukee

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I was feeling nostalgic recently for the family vacations of my childhood, and wishing I could recreate some of that magic somehow. Nothing I was finding was giving me the feeling I was looking for - if I even knew exactly what I wanted. And then I realized, why not? Instead of finding a place similar to where we used to go, couldn’t I find the exact place we used to visit?

And so I did! I wasn’t exactly sure until we got there, but slowly the pieces started to piece together. Memories started lining up with what was in front of me, and sure enough I was finding myself spending the day in the same spots I was when I was nine or ten years old. It was so surreal and amazing. And then my parents joined us, and we found the same house we used to stay in. And talked about the weeks we used to spend there with my grandparents, and my uncle, and great aunt - all people who aren’t with us anymore, but who had been with us in this place. It was a small thing and it was everything.

I Think Summer's Over

It could also be April right now, so I’m not completely sure, but I think summer is kind of over. As odd as it was for a summer, and as many things I feel like I missed out on, it still was pretty good?

We went to our favorite farm/petting zoo twice, which is probably about average for us. We spent a ton of time outside, and used our yard more than we ever have. We’re also closer to our neighbors than before, since everyone is home all the time, and we seem to catch each other for chats more often.

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Still Summer

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Sometimes I forget it’s summer. I simultaneously think it’s still March and can’t believe it’s not September yet. Time is an odd thing now.

Of course it doesn’t always feel like summer, either. I’m certainly not doing or experiencing the things that usually mark summer for me. Even silly ones - commuting in the heat in long pants and arriving in the office all sweaty is a thing of the past. No longer am I getting into a hot car and burning my hands on the steering wheel and finding my water too hot to drink. I’m barely getting into the car at all.