Suddenly: Last Summer
Last summer.
Now that it’s late enough in the new year that I remember to write 2012 on things, and finally cold enough to make me think its actually winter, I find myself thinking about last summer. As it approached, I was busy.
Busy installing brick edging in the gardens, and addressing changes in both my work situations and exploring the bike trail and digging in the garden and having great fun with friends old and new. For so many reasons, I was long overdue to post here at the blog when Midsummer came steamily into town with the high summer holidays of Independence Day weekend quickly afterward.
And then, just when I had a free moment and was feeling inspired about writing, this nasty electrical storm (<—that one there) came along one humid night and took out my home computer. Gasp. No email at home. No blogging. No Facebook. (Suddenly, a wealth of infinitely clever status updates sprang freely to mind.) No online banking or weather forecasts or movie schedules. No endless hours of meaningless internet clicking and surfing. No Joe.My.God. No Post Secret. No funny cat videos or porn. Even without the internet, my computer is also my home stereo. Ugh.
It was annoying and inconvenient and boring and irksome and (except for the music part since my iPod was stranded with just two podcasts of Selected Shorts which I listened to over and over again for about a month) possibly the very best thing that could’ve happened to me.
There was more time to putter in the garden. More time with friends. More time for books: I read The Great Gatsby in an afternoon! More time on the bike trail amounted to about 15 pounds lost! I saw more sunsets and even shared a few sunrises in the company of my prolific morning glories and a certain gray feline.
Even without the computer, I was still filling the memory card of my camera. Here’s some of what you missed.
17 January 2012 at 8:43 pm
Glad it seems we didn’t “miss” the good stuff….
18 January 2012 at 4:11 am
What a nice flowery post on a dark winter night!
The morning glories have such a rich deep color. I haven’t had marigolds in a while. They’re so easy, and so cheerful.
18 January 2012 at 7:31 am
Thanks for this bright spot in a gray morning. (That will change soon: this evening I will be in Sarasota.) Being locked out gives us time we didn’t know we had, doesn’t it. So glad to hear of good things happening, but I wonder what “changes” you refer to about work. All good?
26 January 2012 at 10:21 pm
The bachelor’s button shot at the end there is stunning. Your shots are always pretty, but that one is magical.
30 January 2012 at 8:38 am
You know, as barbaric and frightening as it sounds, your computer-less summer sounds s appealing. Oh, to spend an afternoon reading without that nagging desire to check Facebook or check in on the news. Oh, to be isolated except for these wonderful flowers and your gray-suited furry friend.
Idyllic. (Although I did miss you!)