FINALLY SUMMER

The heading says it all...and summer roared in with temps close to the 90's.  I love, love summer and am so happy it is here.  I try to eat lunch outside on the deck every day that I am home and either take pictures of birds or read.  It is very relaxing and invigorating at the same time.  I am delighted that the grandkids are out of school.  Now I get to go down to see them.  I have managed to go 3 weeks in a row (including this week) and really enjoy it.  We are learning about the states of Texas and Hawaii.  Later in the summer we will learn about the countries of England and Java.  Each child picked a state, a country, a US President and an animal.  The presidents were from Pez dispensers I found at Big Lots(????).  There are 5 pez dispensers and so far we have picked William Henry Harrison and Andrew Jackson.  The animals are silver back gorillas and giraffes with some toads and frogs thrown in extra.  In addition we are hitting on Australia since the Toledo Zoo has a great Australian thing going on until September.  I just love those kids and we do other things also not just learning.  More to come later.

MEMORIAL WEEKEND

The first part of the Memorial weekend was great.  The temperatures were in the high 60's and the sun was out.  Our son, daughter-in-law and grandkids came up late Saturday and left late Sunday.  It was great to have them here.  Susie Q McGillicutty and Bob continued their pool match.  Susie Q was up from the last time but after 6 games, this weekend ended in a tie (3-3).  She is still up over all.  Great-Grandpa came for lunch on Sunday after going to the casino for a couple of hours.  JR went over to make sure he made it here for lunch and the other 5 of us went to the zoo to see the baby polar bears and meet Baru, the 17 ft, 1500 lb Australian Saltwater Crocodile.  The polar bears were hysterical (I had just seen them less than a week ago) and the crocodile is awesome.  We managed to see the Artic wolves and Lucas the 2 year old elephant.  BDB had not seen the new elephant exhibit - Tembo Trail and was amazed at how the zoo has changed.  It has been about 3 years since he was there.  Since we are going to watch the dog(s) over the 4th of July, I negotiated to make sure I also get to have the grandkids here also.  I mean, that is what summer is for - visiting grandparents.

Sunday night, with tissues in hand, I watched the Capital Memorial Day concert on PBS.  It is not really a celebration of Memorial Day but rather a somber look at those who have sacrified for all of us.  Charles Durning was featured this year.  He usually speaks at the concert each year but passed away last year.  He has a silver and bronze star as well as 3 purple hearts.  The concert is very moving.

True to form, Memorial Day was cold and rainy.  We had planned on playing golf but cancelled.  We did join friends for supper at the club Monday night.  It is now back to reality.  No more playing with grandchildren.

SUMMER COUNTDOWN

In one of my current issues of Good Housekeeping, it was stated that there are 98 days in summer and 14 weekends.  I figure that since summer is my MOST favorite season, I better get busy and start planning.  I failed this week.  I was not able to play golf Wednesday with the ladies and did not make any plans for Friday golf.  Originally this summer I had thought that I would try to play golf on Wednesday, Friday and most Sundays.  So I feel like I have wasted this week.  We are having friends over for euchre this Saturday (it is my turn) and I am getting everything ready (grocery shopping and cleaning) as well as going out and getting plants for the containers.  Maybe next week I can fulfill my plans for golf.

While cleaning last week, I ran across my old Lutheran Book of Prayer.  So this morning I looked up Friday and read the morning prayer.  I am going to share the last part as I have always felt that I struggle with this.

"Grant that I be ready to forgive, earnest in my rejoicing with those who are happy, quick in sympathy, and zealous in bearing the burdens of my fellow men." 

GLORIOUS DAY

On Thursday, I was lucky enough to play golf with 3 good friends.  The day was perfect.  It was one of those spring days when the sky, sun and spring tree flowers were in perfect harmony.  My personal golf game was lacking BUT the camaraderie was excellent.  I do believe that Joyce Kilmer said it best in her poem "Trees"  If you have the time you should reread it.

                                "I think that I shall never see
                                  A poem lovely as a tree.

POST HILTON HEAD

We just got back from Hilton Head South Carolina. We left a day early for a stop over for a baseball game.    The temps were in the high 30's and rainy so thankfully the game was cancelled.  We count that as attendance at a game.  We then drove to Columbia SC the next day and had a short less than 3 hour drive to the island.  Luckily we were actually able to get into the condo around 1pm so I felt like we had an extra day there.  We were in Hilton Head 7 days/nights. On Sunday some friends joined us and spent the rest of the time there.  We also had additional friends at another location so had a lot of fun going to dinner with everyone.  I was able to eat seafood/fish every night and most days except breakfast.  However even saying that there was just too much food and by the end of the trip I could not even think of eating.  I stayed in the last night - I could not even think of eating supper or looking at food.  The weather was great up to the last day and  then it was miserable.  I played golf once while JR played 3 times.  I tried to go birding one day but only took pictures of egrets.  My disc from my camera does not seem to want to load onto the computer so I cannot look at the pictures or post any of them.  I will work on that now that I am back.