There Ain't No Cure for the Summertime Blues

Hello.  Good grief, where have you people been???  I've been sitting here waiting and waiting and waiting for you to appear!!!  What's up?  What's been goin on in your lives?  Tell me!  I always love to know who's doin what!  We've been very bizzy in this household.  Very bizzy, indeed.  And nothing to show for it.  My summer plans included painting the bedroom walls, lounging in the pool with a drink, switching out furniture in several rooms, lounging in the pool with a drink, sewing some items that need fixing, lounging in the pool with a drink, reading many books, and, well, you know the plan by now.  Unfortunately, those plans are resting comfortably somewhere in the back of my mind and will be done some day or never.  I haven't painted  anything, on a wall or on paper, in over a month, and when you don't draw or paint for a very long time, even your crappy skills get crappier.  So there's that to deal with, too.  I remember long ago and far away, I was a little girl and summer was so, so wonderful.  It meant reading and playing and swimming, and mostly staying out of the way of our mother.  I've told you some of those stories in the past, but I still remember summer as being a fabulously free time.  Free compared to now.  When you're a child, you generally don't have a whole lot of worries; mainly, you worry about who is available to play and what time the pool opens.  We never worried about that in our house because our mother knew exactly what time to throw us out of the house and exactly what time she expected us to appear at the supper table.  Coming home to a house full of wonderful aromas after swimming all day is a memory I'll always have.  Our mother was an excellent cook in her time.  These were the days before central air conditioning, so walking home from the pool meant good smells coming from just about every house I passed.  My mother made all her dishes from scratch - no extra help from packets or pre-made ingredients.   She usually began cooking early in the day, using the fans to cool her before it got stinking hot.  Fried chicken, roast beef, pork chops, spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, chicken casseroles, pinto beans/mac and cheese/corn bread (my favorite), were on the table at any time in our house, although roast beef was almost always the Sunday meal.  Sheesh, I wish I had one of those meals now.  Just one.  My mother didn't allow us to sit and enjoy anything, because she didn't know how to "sit and enjoy," so my sister and I often hid out before supper.  That meant hiding in the house somewhere or going outside and hiding out of earshot and sort of wandering in at the right moment.  One moment too late, and there would be hell to pay.  We had developed inner radars early on.  We knew self preservation skills better than any Boy Scout.  I was a "sneak" reader.  Did any of you ever do that?  Hide under the covers with a flashlight and a book?  I did that.  I also learned to take my book to the outside hideout, but it was difficult to read and stay awake after swimming all day.  Luckily, my "dinner radar" always kicked in.  I have a hammock that I haven't used this summer.  Of course, I haven't opened the books needed in the hammock, either.  Would one of ya'll please get over here and give me some respite?  I really need to get back to painting and reading and cooking and lounging and doing all those productive things that make life so interesting.  I may even let you get in the pool with a drink.