TheBanyanTree: 2/3 Gone

[Margaret R. Kramer]

Summer is almost 2/3 gone.  My house still hasn’t sold.  I’m going to have
to find out the payout value of my mortgage to determine the “lowest we can
go” price in order to sell this place.  Our neighborhood isn’t a “hot” one,
it seems most homes take months to sell, and I think our price must be a bit
high, since we should have had an offer by now.  I think certain pockets of
the housing market are seeing reducing prices.  We haven’t looked for houses
since we listed, because I didn’t want to fall in love with something and
then not be able to get it if I couldn’t sell my house.

In a way, though, I’m glad we haven’t sold yet.  In spite of the hot
weather, this summer has been great, and it’s nice to enjoy it without
packing up to move.  I’m glad I planted a full garden this year.  I’ve made
a point to get outside in the back yard as much as I can.  I used my laptop
on our wonderful deck yesterday and worked on putting together a newsletter.
It was much more pleasant to do that under the shade of our oak trees rather
stuck in my hot and stuffy office.

Summer is 2/3 gone, but I have rich brown tan.  I began my tan when we were
in Costa Rica, Panama, and Belize when all I had to do was walk outside and
the sun would do its magic and get me tan because we were so close to the
equator.  I’ve been running this summer and we’ve lounged on the beach more
than summers past, plus I also visit the tanning place a couple times a week
to lie in a tube of light and take a nap.  I can wear shorts and tank tops
and not be embarrassed of my white skin.

I went running yesterday, although I was a little nervous about it since it
was warm and getting humid, and I’ve had trouble running when it’s been this
hot.  But I must have acclimated to the heat, because I didn’t have any
problems chugging around the park paths.  The park was full of picnickers,
the grills were smoking, and the water park was jammed.  Summer is such a
wonderful time for gatherings with friends and family and lazing the day
away in the sun.

And there I was, trying to do a brisk trot, when I came around a curve, and
up popped three fawns who were napping in the tall grasses.  I imagine their
mothers were out doing something and left the fawns there knowing they would
be fairly safe.  We looked at each other, but I think the fawns knew I wasn’
t interested in them.  They just walked back to a group of trees and settled
themselves in under the branches.

I was reading on our upper deck after dinner last night, when a hummingbird
came flying by looking for some nectar.  We don’t see hummingbirds too
often, so that was a special treat for me.

Summer is 2/3 gone and I haven’t done as much as I wanted to do.  We still
need to take the boys to a baseball game.  We need to do a Sunday boat trip.
I haven’t been on my bike at all.  I’d like to build a fire pit and begin
burning some of our brush we have behind our garage.

This has been a good summer with lots of sun, heat, and we’re getting rain,
too.  I wish I could stop time and let it drag on forever.  But it continues
to slide away.  In spite of having a major project to work on, I’ll go to
the beach today with the boys and bask in the sun, wishing summer would
never end.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not
with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a
show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw
Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness.  You
may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism. .  ~Erma Bombeck