Lizard Eye

 Hello July morning!  You're cool! Yes, the attic fan is pumping in the cool morning air.  The sun will soon beat down, so I'm welcoming the cold on my itchy face and arms.  I am allergic to certain sunscreens and I even break out in hives when I hug people who are wearing sunscreen! 

 I joined an art journaling site, so I am trying to create a page.  Trying.

 Jeff's tomatoes are ripening and we ate a slice on our hamburgers last night.  I need to quit eating hamburgers because other than exercise class, I've been immobile.  Reading, knitting, napping, sitting at the  movie (Brave) with Kelli and the girls.  I also ate "too many handfuls to count" of licorice jelly beans yesterday and popcorn and Coke at the movies.   I'm over fueling my sloth-like body.  Yikes.
But . . . I DO look pretty cute in my yellow tutu swimsuit, don't I?  Yeah, about that tutu cover up that I promised and was too expensive to buy.  Sorry about that.  I hate the swimsuit I bought last year.  It doesn't fit right and doesn't support.  It's going in the "give away" bag.  The other cute swimsuit I bought doesn't fit on top so Jenny has it and it looks darling on her pregnant body.  Enough about swimsuits. Blech!

 I'm having a minor eye surgery today.  I have a warty thing on my eyelid that I've had forever, but I am finally getting around to having it clipped off.  I might have some bruising, the doctor said.  I'm trying not to think about a sharp instrument messing around so close to my eye in a few hours.  

 Anyway.  Next week Bill and I will be here.  My homeland.  These are the foothills I saw every morning when I was a child.

 I will see my mama and my papa.  I can't wait to lay eyes on them.  They are beautiful.   Look at my pink mother!

 Bill will leave to come back to Denver and I'll go on to a little island to spend some time with my parents and my two brothers and two sisters and their spouses.  FUN!  Kelli and Jenny are flying up with their families and staying nearby, so I can play on the rocky beach with four of our granddaughters.  

 My brother will cook up crab, fresh from the sea.  

 In Poetry magazine, Mary Ruefle refers to "I Remember, I Remember" by Thomas Hood (1789-1845 London/England).  She writes a bit of commentary, some of it quite funny:
"I remember when I graduated college, we were asked to submit exactly how we wanted our names to appear on our diplomas, and I spelled my middle name (which is Lorraine) Low Rain, because the day before I had been reading W. S. Merwin's new book and in it was some kind of brief Japanese thing along the lines of "Low Rain, Roof Fell."
I remember when my parents saw my diploma, they were horrified and kept asking me how I could have done such a thing, after they paid for my education and all."'


That made me laugh!  The original poem is thought provoking.  You should look it up.
What do you remember about your summer youth?  I remember wearing jeans with elastic in the back and hooded grey sweatshirts.  I remember feeling cross because my hands were sticky (I'm a compulsive hand washer even now which is why my hands look borderline witchy).  I remember how an old quilt smelled as it cushioned me from the rocks on that same island beach.  I remember relatives coming to share supper and I remember not really liking some of them.  I remember walks down the beach on my tired little legs and wishing my mother would just carry me. I remember my protruding belly, snuggly covered by a stretchy polyester swimsuit.  I remember patting that tummy and not minding that it was sticking out. 
I'm not packing a swimsuit for this visit, because remember, I'm giving it away.  Smile.

 While you are thinking of childhood summer memories, here are some cosmos for you.  It's cosmos time again.  Gold finches and chickadees are zooming in for landings, looking glorious and tiny.

Five weeks remain until I go back here.  I've been reading through our new textbook, but that's as far as I've gotten with school year planning.  Five weeks from now is an age away, right?  Right.
I'm off to take my lizard-y eyelid to the doctor. I might have to lay low for the rest of the day.  More sluggish behavior.  
Thank you so much for reading to the bottom of this post.  I'm smiling at you.