SUMMERTIME, and the Livin' is Easy

From Where I Sit    Summertime, and the Livin’ is Easy    May 24, 2014  P.D. Spilseth

Summertime, with the double mm’s, makes me feel happy.   Sunny days bring smiles to everyone’s faces.   With today’s weather in the 80‘s:, everybody seems to be out on the lake.  

Folks in kayaks and canoes troll the shore, idyllical and peaceful.  Speedboats are pulling water skiiers; pontoons are cruising with folks barbequing and sipping drinks; kids on jet skis are pounding through the waves; fishermen are trying to find a quiet spot where the fish are biting, and the grandkids next door are jumping off the dock.  With moms nearby, babies in waterwings will soon be floating on the lake at the shoreline.  This weekend is the summertime we’ve been dreaming of all winter.

Delicious summertime...time to open the windows, slather on sunscreen, get into the garden and slap those pesky mosquitoes.  TIme for iced tea, watermelon, burgers, beer and brats, cole slaw and salads.   I’m ready for a sun-soaked summer.

Memorial Day is early this year, but the weather is perfect.   We’re enjoying the first sunny weekend of the summer.  Time to visit the graves of loved ones and honor our veterans who have sacrificed for the freedoms we in America enjoy.  Parades with marching bands and veterans hoisting flags and guns pass through towns going to cemeteries and village gathering places for speeches and gun salutes.  Neighbors are firing up their grills to cook brats and burgers for family get togethers. It’s time to enjoy this much longed-for weekend of bliss.  Time to relax on the lake in the sunshine.  

This promises to be the BEST SUMMER EVER!  Here in Minnesota, we need assurance that weathering our eternal winters will bring a summertime reward.  Not everyone is tough enough to handle our Minnesota weather extremes.  Some more delicate folks are snowbirds, moving for several months to Arizonia, California and Florida.  Summertime sunshine provides jewels in our crowns for living in MInnesota~

Time for ice cream, corn on the cob, farmers’ markets, flip flops and floats.  Winter’s snowy, freezing weather had us devouring carbs and sweets,  but by May we’re ready to wiggle into swim suits and shorts, sundresses and sun visors.  We may be a bit chunky, but we’re not vain.  Though we clothe ourselves in parkas, wool scarves and Uggs all winter, we’re ready for summer swimsuits and flipflops.  We Scandinavians draw the line at Speedos, however...  We are prideful.

The aged geraniums I’ve had inside all winter are adjusting to their newly potted lives outdoors on the deck.  Though their leggy leaves and red and pink blooms are drooping slightly, in another week or two they’ll be back to their perky selves.  Daily, I see the hosta growing several inches, and our tall maples provide cooling shade with their leafy canopies spreading over the entire yard and down to the lake.  Violets are blooming around the foot of the maples, and Andy’s restored Chris Craft Roamer and his Tidyboats pontoon are parked at the dock.  Unfortunately, we put in the dock too early this year.  Because we’ve had too many rains of 3” and more, now water is splashing over the slippery dock.  My wooden bench and swimmers’ ladder are ready for me to relax after a swim.  It’s only the end of May so the lake is still icy cold, but by mid June, it’ll be refreshing for a swim.

A water skier is riding the waves across Carmen’s Bay.  As I relax with my coffee and newspaper on the deck in the early morning silence, I can hear the drone of a fishing boat motor on the lake   Whether I rise at 5 or 6 AM, I never seem to beat a fisherman or two floating in their boat on our Bay.  Cardinals and nuthatches flit around the birdfeeder, and bunnies are hiding under our deck and in the woods.  A fat raccoon is nesting in one of our maple trees.   Between frequent naps on the deck, Buddy occasionally jumps up to chase the bunnies and squirrels hiding in the pines and flying through the maples.  Our Beagle had high hopes...he truly believes he could climb the trees.  One of these days, Buddy may catch a squirrel or a bunny, but I have serious doubts about that.  

Summer, unfortunately, brings bugs.  Scratching and itching, I hope no ticks are feasting on my skin or Buddy’s.  This year, ticks are supposed to be more numerous than ever.  They’re hardy, having survived our winter that seemed to be everlasting.  

Grandkids have arrived for the weekend at our neighbors’ homes.  Action Jackson will be over for cookies shortly so I’d better start baking his favorite, my chocolate chips.  Jackson, Cooper, Allie, Ethan and Avery will sit with me and Buddy on the deck recounting their latest escapades at school and their ball team scores.  It’s gonna be a lazy, hazy perfect summertime on the lake once again...  833 words