- I've found joy in my substitute children, Alex and Sydney. Some days I pick Alex up from summer school and we have lunch and find interesting things to do like wandering the library. Other days I take his sister or sometimes both of them while their mother sleeps for her night shift job.
- My niece and I have done some bonding this summer. We got quality time together in CA, follow each other on SnapChat now, and I got to watch her in her dance recital. She is amazing. Very much theatrical like her grandmother and cousin Darcy and so very graceful in her dancing. It was beautiful to watch. I've been to several of her shows, have watched her evolve from the kid that watched others to the one the others watch now, and it makes my heart swell with pride to see her commanding the stage. That kid will go places.
- When we got the pool, the kids were little. Tom did the maintenance, and because he seemed to enjoy that time of solitude, I let him. Once in a blue moon, I'd vacuum but for the most part, it has been all Tom. Lately, he's been making comments about how the pool needed attention, how he didn't have time, blah, blah, blah. One morning after a busy weekend, I decided to forgo the gym for an aquatic workout. Unfortunately, mustard algae had taken over the pool so I vacuumed. The chore is an easy one since we have a fiberglass pool but the setup and takedown is a killer and thankfully I can cool off in the pool because I'm a drowned mess by the end of it. Two days later the mustard algae returned and I repeated my maintenance. The next day I had a swimming lesson and after that had concluded I treated the pool again. By the following day, I was over it. I got in the pool with a brush and scrubbed the hell out of the mustard algae on the sides, the ladder, the steps, and the bottom. I vacuumed again. I refilled the chlorine bobber, and then upon discovering zippo chlorine in our pool, I turned to the liquid container. I dumped what was left in the pool and then I dumped in more from another container. I added water and let the filter run for a few hours. I mean, hello, this was my job for years and years and years. Who better to handle it than me? Well... I guess it's been awhile. Plus, this pool is way smaller than the pools I'm used to handling and so I might have put a bit too much chlorine into the pool. I told Tom I shocked the pool. I did a damn fine job of it too. While the mustard algae has not returned in the five days since my treatment, we also haven't been able to swim because the chlorine is a tad too high. Oops. But on the bright side, the pool looks fabulous out my back window!
- My friend who has recently gone through an excruciatingly hard time and who is starting her life over due to that hard time asked if we could start up our every two week family night dinners. We used to do this years ago with our children and so we resurrected it with each person getting a night to cook a meal. We eat, play games, and just talk. It has been a ton of fun for all of us. My friend decided to also add a weekend here and there and so we headed off to play TopGolf one Saturday. Not knowing what the heck that was I Googled it and groaned. It's a center with small rooms that overlook a huge range. The rooms include couches and a driving tee and the object is to eat and drink while teeing it up to hit targets on the range. Highest score wins. Ugh. Golf. But, I got the idea the rooms were indoors, figured I could handle a couple of games, wore a black shirt, and found out how stupid that thought and selection really was. Golf is played outdoors, Cara, and this is Florida in the summer. I roasted, to say the least in the two hours it took us to finish our game with six players. However, my golfing parents had to have been proud when they saw that I certainly had retained my form (especially compared to the other five, insert rolling eye emoji, oh my!) and proceeded to kick butt against the field despite a herniated disc, sweat in the eyes, and some incompetence in running the scoreboard so that several of my scores were put on others' sheets and their zippo scores put on mine.
- My drum lessons are the best! I've had three lessons so far and each time I'm so pumped that I keep searching for a drum set. My teacher loves me. He loves me so much that the last two times he's given me an extra thirty minutes of instruction due to cancellations and my early arrival. In a year, I'm going to play with a band. That's my goal. I'm so thrilled that I did this. It's a huge step for me and I practice daily everywhere I go whether at a stop light or here at home on the couch. During breaks in my writing, I play the drums. I was at a stoplight yesterday after coming home from my lesson and I was working on the new backbeat when a woman crossed in front of me. She was smiling from ear to ear and rocking out with me, giving me the thumbs up. I didn't miss a beat which is something I'm learning because I tend to want to stop when I make a mistake or am distracted and start over. I nodded at her and kept on drumming until the song on the radio was over. Oh, yeah. I'm a drummer!
- I now volunteer every Friday at the church in the office. It used to be every other Friday, but the other volunteer quit so I picked up the slack. While I enjoy being back in an office and love the women I work with, it's the chance to smooch my boss' daughter that really makes me happy. She brings her 6-month-old to work and I love getting to snuggle her, kiss those cheeks, make her smile, feed her real food, and then hand her back at the end of my shift. Best of both worlds!
- In August I'm going to have an all over medical body scan. To prepare for that I've started exercising. I've doubled my time at the gym, although this week wasn't the best. It has helped me sleep. Helped my back. And it has brought me back into the pool because I'm so sweaty when I get home that I just continue my workout by jumping in there. I'm determined to get this damn weight at least down by ten pounds. Either way, I feel better.
So is my summer of 2018. Not so shabby after all.
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