Sunburn

Yesterday was the perfect day to be home - clear, cool, sunny and bright, a little breeze blowing, birds singing, very blue sky, no traffic or machinery noise... bliss. I didn't have to go to work - so it was a rare opportunity to spend this wonderful day out in my lovely back yard. I found a paperback book to read in my collection of yet-to-be-read-maybe books, hustled out to the grass in my bare feet, rearranged the Adirondack chairs under the trees so I could sit in the shade, and settled down to enjoy the view of green grass and flowers. A cold Diet Coke, a few pretzels, a footrest... and the whole day stretched out luxuriously in front of me. I got visited by squirrels. The jays chattered at me.

Maybe there was a little too much cool breeze. My feet were cold. I moved my chair into the sun. My Diet Coke got warm. I got another one and found a shady spot under the chair to put it. A city mowing crew showed up to mow the grass on the other side of my fence - 4 times. (Don't ask - I don't know why they had to keep coming back to do it some more.) I got up and moved to the deck, further away from the fence, but had to clean bird poop off of the deck chair frames before I could put the cushions on them and sit down again. And then I had to clean up the remains of the peanuts that the squirrels had shelled on the deck. (And yes, toss out some more.) The paperback book got a little trashy. The sun moved and I had to adjust my chair to stay out of the shade where it was still a little cool. And I got a world-class sunburn on my feet.

These are the situations in which I find myself waxing philosophic about the yin and the yang or some such nonsense: Into each life a little rain must fall; You can't appreciate the good without the contrast of the bad; It always rains on the unloved; There is no such thing as perfection.

Stuff happens.

But forget that - it was a wonderful day and I'd have that same day over and over again if I could. (With the possible exception of eliminating the mowing crew.)

Happy Summer!