Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Summer Synopsis



















I've heard the complaints. Yes. I can see I have only posted once in August. Hey -- pick up the phone. Or send me an email. We moved but we didn't fall off the earth.

Summer is slipping away. It's been 10 weeks since we left California - which seems alternately a lifetime or perhaps just a summer vacation ago. Sunday night we returned from a quick beach trip and I admit coming back did not feel like coming home. I brushed it off to the rental house status but I suspect there is a little more. September, school, reconnecting with friends. Familiar and comfortable. But not this year.

We've had a wonderful summer. Don't mistake my blogging negligence for a lack of activity. Perhaps a quick photo montage will help. The photos above are from August - after my last post. We made up for the lack of house progress with our own improvement - a much desired tree swing. We've slid under waterfalls and swam in their chilly pools, hiked up Mt. Pisgah (at least 5 or 6 miles of it), and explored Hilton Head Island for our beach fix. Jellyfish stings aside, the warm Atlantic water proved hard to resist, even for a self-described beach sloth such as me. I didn't even mind the alligator in the hotel lagoon. He was small enough to be cute, and his bigger scarier brothers can take the place of the Pismo sharks as the tiny thrill of danger on our otherwise lulling beach trips. Somehow those sharks always timed their attacks with our arrival at the beach. In fitting tribute, during our visit a 10-foot alligator hit the local headlines when he left his swamp to sample the salt water.

Despite our explorations and our near-constant enjoyment of the simple physical beauty here, we miss our friends. We miss the easy Friday night barbeques - come as you are and bring something to share. We miss Sunday night suppers with Auntie Nicola. We miss our favorite Pismo Beach hotel with its great staff of friendly local kids, the smores by the pool, the multitude of seashells on the beach.

I know we'll make new friends and establish new traditions. But the end of summer is always a little poignant, and I'm feeling it tonight.

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