Stories about summer the way it's supposed to be

1) Right now there are three children in the open lot behind my house playing with dirt and rocks. They're new to the neighborhood, and they're outside a lot during the day. They look around 10, 8 and 3 years of age. As I've done yard work this week, I've seen them out running in the sprinkler, catching lightning bugs and piling onto a large skateboard as they soar down the driveway. They were so cute walking across the lots. Big kid on either side of little brother, holding both of his hands so he didn't fall down in the weeds or dirt.

Their mother and father are never very far away. Right now, the mother has just joined her children to wrangle them back to the house. English is a second language, but I'm not sure what their first language is. It sounds Eastern European. Either way, I focus on them in a different way than I focus on X-man when we're outside. When we're outside, we're riding bikes, drawing with chalk or in the sandbox. It's usually just X-man and me and I'm engaged in the summer play, so I don't really get a chance to sit back and enjoy his contentment and love for being outdoors exploring and getting dirty. 

I remember running around the neighborhood with my pals when I was younger, and I'm loving the fact that sometime all too soon, X-man will be running around the neighborhood with a group of kids exploring and looking out for each other, just like these siblings are. 

2) We took X-man down to Tolono to the new Double Dip last night. It's all soft serve ice cream. X-man's child's-sized cup of vanilla was 50 cents, so we splurged had them add some M&Ms. MacTroll's small hot fudge sundae was $2. It was busy but not insane. But it felt nice to share a table with another family and eat some ice cream on a lovely summer evening. I think we'll be going back a few more times this summer. I'm assuming it'll be a seasonal business like Jarling's. 

3) Last night I was hanging out with SuperShanna, delivering a cucumber from our garden, and watching X-man and WonderGirl ride bikes and a woman pulled up. At first we got nervous, like she was there to sell us something (I hate door-to-door solicitations). But she introduced herself as new to Prairie Fields, and asked about some of the scrap cedar that SuperShawn had from building his fence. In a flash, Shawn was measuring out some pieces for her and putting them in her car so she could make them into garden boxes. We went over our names again, and now I'll have a new friend to wave at when I walk in the mornings. 

4) Wet Dogs. We had an incident in the neighborhood on Sunday. Apparently, the coyotes decided to make a swing through the empty lots while SuperShanna was walking her Lab, Cooper. Cooper was on a leash, or he would have taken off after the coyote. But the insane noises that came from Cooper seeing the coyote and the coyote seeing Cooper were pretty impressive. Anyway, yesterday, KTDID and I tried to take our dogs on the usual 3-mile walk (which has gone from a 60-minute work out to a 48-minute workout, as I've progressed in speed over the summer) but when we got to the empty lot two doors down from my house, her dog, Zoe put her nose in the air and immediately sat down. Two sniffs later and she was backtracking dragging KTDID with her. She was clearly spooked. We're going to guess it was the smell of coyote urine.

So, we tried to entice Z0e to go into Dana Colbert park on the other side of our house. No one was there, so when we got close to the lake, we let the dogs off leash for a little bit. And Riley immediately jumped in the lake after some fish and started swimming around. Zoe stood with her feet in the water (a southern California dog) bewildered at still water. Apparently, her off-leash dog park was on a beach, where the waves rolled in and dogs just ran up and down the surf. 

The two of them got a nice bunch sprints and jogs and sniffs, and we walked up and down the hill a bit, so they slept all afternoon yesterday. 

5) I finally planted lilies on the west side of my fence. I spent all afternoon yesterday weeding and digging and watering. It looks MUCH better. I still have to put down mulch and weed under where our bench is going to sit, but I'm progressing slowly. I couldn't find any peony bushes that I liked any more, so I'm going to order them with my fall bulbs and put them in this October. Then I should be done... yeah, right. :-)