"Things I Did This Summer"

I am getting really old, and do you know how I know this?  Yes, partly by looking in the mirror, but also because I’m one of those people who proclaim with such astonishment, “Where did the summer go?  Time has just flown by this summer!”  It seems like we just got done with the crappy winter snowstorms and now it’s September and snow is right around the corner again.  For those of you who don’t know…I HATE snow and winter and cold and blizzards and ice and darkness and pretty much everything that goes along with the winter months.  I could live in a summery climate for the rest of my life and never miss seeing a snowflake.  But I digress…this column is supposed to be about “what I did this summer” even if it was a mere moment in time. 

Well, let’s see…we didn’t go on any vacations, but that isn’t anything new.  When you are a farmer, vacations are pretty few and far between.  Cattle need to be watched, crops need to be tended to, hay needs to be put up, plus we’re broke…so, no vacations.  Instead, we made our own fun right here at home. 

Mowing is a highlight for me…I really do enjoy getting out in the hot sun and watching the grass go from shaggy and unkempt to neat and tidy.  We had enough rain all summer to keep the grass green and growing with vigor, so I was able to absorb a ton of those harmful UV rays. 

In July, we had company over the 4th as Ryan and Lauren came from Minneapolis along with the Krogman’s from Vermillion.  One of the reasons that Ryan came back was to attend the annual Willow Lake Alumni Banquet.  This is something that is totally unique to Willow Lake High School.  Every year for like 90 years or something, the school has held an all school reunion and banquet for all alumni.  No other school can say that!  This banquet is only for the graduates, not their spouses which always causes much grumbling, but where would we put 1000 people?  This year the banquet was attended by nearly 500 former graduates, and it was hotter than the devil in the gym.  Dick, Alex and I all attended the banquet with Ryan and Lauren showing up later for the dance. 

The next night was the 4th, and we headed over to Willow Lake once again to watch the fireworks display.  We sat and sat, waiting for the festivities to start, when little Emerson began to get tired, which means she needs her orange blankie and sippie cup which we had neglected to bring.  She was inconsolable, so after listening to her scream for 20 minutes, Jordan decided “enough of this GD fireworks display” (which still hadn’t started) and she and I squealed off in the van with Emerson and Hudson.  We were about 1 mile out of town when the fireworks started, so we missed the whole show.    I don’t even like fireworks, so that was no big deal.   Jordan and crew had brought along some of their own fireworks which the girls enjoyed shooting off.  They had some that, when lit, exploded with multi-colored paper streamers shooting out.  These streamers and debris got left behind in the yard for the wind to blow around.  The next day, I was teasing Peyton over and over with “open your mouth and close your eyes and you shall get a big surprise!”  She was always reluctant to trust me and would peek first before eating whatever it was I had.  I would have something good like a chocolate or cookie, so no harm was being done.  Soon, she came and told me “OK, Grandma, open your mouth and close your eyes and you shall get a big surprise!’  I went along with it, trying to show her that she didn’t have to be so paranoid.  I opened my mouth wide and she shoved in something disgusting…it was a big wad of the paper fireworks streamers she had picked up off the ground!  I can’t wait until I can get revenge!  She reminds me of Uncle Ryan, just a little!

In other news, we have lived in our house now for over a year and have yet to use our front (or back) door.  The house sits quite high off the ground and a deck is in order, but the trouble is finding someone to come build this imaginary deck.  We bought a bunch of retaining wall rock and it has been sitting on pallets in the yard for 2 months now.  So, we continue to use the garage door.    I have still been managing to keep myself busy with decorating and painting.  I’m sure Dick is wondering if there will ever be an end and my answer to that is “I doubt it!”  I did the same thing in the old house, forever repainting, rearranging furniture, hanging new pictures, etc…this summer I have discovered a website that I am now addicted to.  It is called “Rate My Space” and you can take pictures of your rooms, patio, yard etc…and upload them onto this site.  Then others rate your space on a scale of 1 to 5 stars.  (This is also a TV show on my favorite channel, HGTV).  So, I grabbed my trusty digital camera and took pics of my dining room, kitchen, bedroom and the girl’s bedroom and posted them for all the world to judge.  I got pretty good feedback, about 4 stars on each room.  If you are unlucky and have an ugly room that gets few stars, you may be the next one chosen to be on the TV show.  The host comes to your ugly house and uses 3 of the best rooms as inspiration to make yours into a showplace, free of charge, so it inspires even those with dumps to show off.  I don’t care so much for the show, but I could spend hours and hours rating people’s rooms. 

I had gotten an inspiring idea of my own involving these solid, wooden cubes which can be hung on a wall for decoration, but Crate and Barrel wanted like $16 each.  I thought that was too much money, so I found an old, square corner post out back and cut it into cubes, sanded them, and painted them with espresso spray paint.  Then I stuck double sided sticky things to them and mounted them on the bedroom wall in the room where Jordan and Calvin sleep.  I also added a small square mirror plus a glass votive cup with candle and when it was all complete, I was quite proud of myself.  It really looked nice and cost next to nothing.  And think of how surprised Jordan would be when they arrived tonight and walked in to see the beautiful display!  That was last night.  This morning before work I went down to once again admire my handiwork.  To my horror, 5 of the cubes had fallen down, bringing the glass votives crashing down with them.  One was broken and the sticky stuff pulled the paint right off the wall, so I was left with a mess.  I used extra sticky things and tried again, only to find 3 more had fallen within a few minutes.  At least Jordan and Calvin weren’t in bed at the time…they would have gotten a rude awakening with blocks of wood crashing down on them!

Last weekend, Dick and I took in a concert at the SD State Fair.  Ryan was right when he said that the fair in SD is pretty lame unless you like looking at livestock or farm machinery.  The wind was blowing 35 MPH and it was in the 90’s, so dirt was whipping around all afternoon.  We ate some high priced, bad for you  food and then headed to the grandstand to see “.38 Special” a band from our era, the ‘70’s.  It was a good show, the only downfall being that directly in front of us were 3 young men who couldn’t go 2 minutes without a cigarette.  The breeze blew their smoke right back into our faces, so I had to gasp for breath most of the night.  As soon as one finished, another would light up and usually all 3 were puffing away at one time.  I sat there pondering how disgusting it was, not only to be subjected to the smoke wafting out of the cigarette, but to have to inhale the smoke that had traveled into their mouths, down their blackened lungs and back out again through their mouth and or nose.  When you stop and think about it, it is really sickening.  If only I had had a small, portable fan, I could have used it to blow their smoke right back at them, but that would surely have commenced into a fist fight between them and my husband who would have felt duty bound to protect me.  And these guys were covered with tattoos and were a decade or two younger, so…I breathed in their noxious fumes and shut my mouth.

Well, there you have it…that just about sums up my summer.  Not too exciting, but that’s just fine with me.  After all, I’m getting too old for much excitement. (That will come later in September as Ryan and the Glanzers host “Carpenter Bash # 5!)  Now, if winter can just fly by as fast as summer did, I’ll be in great shape!