Summertime Potpourri

It's weird -- the electronic tones, chimes from the elementary school behind us are still sounding at the appropriate times of the school day -- but school is out. Sometimes it throws us off as we look out to maybe see the kids playing at recess or lunchtime and sometimes we actually do see kids playing in probably some summer program but not in sync so much with the "bells".

And then too we have a hodgepodge of things going on around us that seems to fit into summer somewhere.

We have the remnants of the 4th of July -- e.g. the "old" flag being displayed in addition to the new one. The 4th being in the middle of the week sure had a different sense of being a holiday. We are so used to weekend holidays -- not the middle of the week holidays, so much.

We did notice that there seemed to be less "illegal" fireworks being fired around us this year. Not so in other California communities though -- some apparently were like "war-zones" not unlike their regular everyday stance.

There is the heavy fire danger hanging over our heads these days and the ever-present hot days and then not-so-hot days. And our (my) mind drifts off to the "farm", whatever that means . . .

It was "shocking" to me to see the current temperatures as I have lived in two of the listed cities and while I always knew it to be hot -- never quite this hot:

In the 1970s I lived in Santa Ana and then moved to Riverside. I can't imagine 118° or even the 114°.

We did have a fully air-conditioned home in Riverside -- and a pool -- not so in Santa Ana. Talk about a desert -- wow!

And talking about -- HOT -- I am a fan of hot dogs and usually eat about 50 total throughout the year.

This week at Nathan's Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest, the winner consumed about 1 1/2 times my yearly consumption -- in ten minutes.

Like the hot dog pictured in the upper left, the winner ate 74 of them (including the buns) in just 10 minutes -- how is that possible, or why is that possible. 

Then, speaking of hot dogs, at a Phillie's/Cardinal game, a poor woman was struck in the eye with a dog shot from the Phillie's Phan mobile -- she did go to the ER but is taking it all in stride and with a good sense of humor as well -- I hope the Phillie's at least gave her a fresh dog or dogs.

And I think I like the picture on the right -- a "dogham" -- it might be tasty. I used to stop at a fast food joint in LA that served a "Mike's Hockey Burger" which was a hot dog on a burger and was really tasty . . .

The other news that captivates is about the soccer boys in the cave -- I can't imagine:

At this point, they are considering trying to start the rescue operations as monsoons are predicted to start soon which would fill the caves with water.

We can only wish them well and hope to hear the real stories after they are out and safe.

For some reason, besides the image of the "farm", I happened upon this image of what I consider the perfect appearing "summer cottage".

I can imagine lounging about on that porch reading a favorite book or sipping ice tea and/or lemonade. Is that even possible anymore?  I'm not sure where this cottage really is but I do have a sense of -- whatever the word is for -- a yearning for an experience that I never really had . . . but would enjoy if the opportunity came about.

So -- what's on our nightstand currently?

We just started this very large book (over 500 pages) a couple of nights ago. Robin Williams always was an interesting comedian to me -- and I'm finding out some interesting things about him that I never knew.

One thing was that he did live in the Chicago area for a while growing up and that he came from a family of means. I never had given that much thought -- but it is of interest now that I think about his life.

I'm sure that we will find out many more surprising facts and stories which we may share in future posts.

So, that is a bit of our week. See you all "in a few" ! 👨👩