Thursday, June 29, 2017

Lazy Days of Summer - Plus Yarn

Not Susie
Band camp has started, so Susie trudges off each day with her saxophone to spend 4 hours learning the finer points of, well, whatever it is sax players do.

And, please, if there's anything cuter than a kid with a saxophone, I don't know what it is. Back in my day, no one I knew, except Clarence Clemons (and I didn't really know him, of course, I just knew OF him), played saxophone. Not kids, anyway...

Where the heck was I? Oh, so Susie heads out each morning for the band camp carpool and I spend the next 4 hours exercising plus getting all the cooking, housecleaning, laundry, and yard work done.

Ha, ha, ha. No, I don't do that. That's what I should be doing. And, to be fair, I did generate this pile of weeds today:

This took way more effort than it looks
But that was about it this morning.  I mean, I did get over 6000 steps, too, so you can check fitness off that to-do list. But I didn't bother with the cooking today (hey, I cooked yesterday - potato salad, tortellini salad, sesame noodles, and a weird cucumber salad thing, and yes, you should most definitely be impressed). Instead? I allowed myself to waste some time. The laundry went unfolded, I didn't clean the fridge (aside from sticking some frozen bags of compost out in the compost bin to thaw for tomorrow's pick up), I didn't worry about dinner.

Hey, Twitter wasn't going to read itself, you know.

This, my friends, feels like true luxury to me - after all these years of having to be uber-efficient in order to stave off utter havoc, things are not quite so urgent anymore. If something doesn't get done right away, it no longer precipitates a slide into chaos so great that we can't recover. It's taken Larry and I a few years to get used to this new state of affairs, but it is definitely growing on us. I mean, it's gotten to the point where we can't even figure out how we survived those 2 decades of having young kids in the house. Barfing young kids, to boot...

That said, I do have a knitting deadline this week. Our local yarn store gives prizes each quarter if you make something using yarn they sold you. So I'm hurrying to finish my current love, because apparently I respond only to rewards at this point. While I'm kitchenering my cowl, though, could someone please identify this lone flower I discovered in our yard while I was weeding?

I haven't even managed to kill it yet.

Petunia? Morning Glory? A confused dandelion?




[Clarence image: Wikipedia]




10 comments:

  1. Looks like a petunia to me. My grandpa always filled the planter in front of his house with pink ones. Or as he used to say, "spitoonias." I need to find a new knitting project. None of my current WIPS are speaking to me at all.

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  2. Looks like you got a volunteer petunia. People pay good money for those! Once my mom told me she always wanted to play the sax. Now I can't see one without picturing her 69 year old self rocking out on one.

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  3. Maybe it's a petunia glory.

    I have become excellent at wasting time. And I also was just remarking to myself that my life seems less hectic now that I just have the one kid still living at home. She has taken on some volunteer work for the summer. I remember how anxiety-producing it was, several summers ago, when I had to coordinate the transportation of three kids to their many different summer jobs and activities.

    Band camp is my favorite thing. It's like school starts two week early.

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  4. Enjoy! My kids all do their own thing now. Only one left to drive.

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  5. It looks like a morning glory to me - they are pretty, but can be invasive, if that's what it is.

    I hear you with the not having to be uber-efficient anymore - it's one of the side affects of adult children. The only problem? Now I find that, if I'm not careful, absolutely NOTHING gets done.

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  6. No idea what that flower is, because I still struggle to keep the inside of the house up and running . . . no time for the outside landscaping. And it shows! My landscaping-interested 14 year old has recently decided to take on our yard. Yippee.

    Thanks for offering me a little hope on the less chaotic lifestyle enjoyed by people with an almost empty nest. We have three short trips planned over the next three weeks and the logistics are making my head spin. Still not sure what we are doing with the oldest two when the rest of us head to New Orleans for Irish Dancing National Championships next week. Lots of moving parts. Ugh!

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  7. AnonymousJuly 01, 2017

    Petunia?
    I never heard of a yarn incentive like that before--clever!
    I wish I'd have stuck with band. None of my kids have any desire to be musical, which bums me out.

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  8. It appears to be a petunia. My first thought was morning glory but they tend to be more of a vine and much taller before they bloom.

    I had my children when I was (far too) young so I've had several years of time where I can do pretty much as please. (I'm also older by 4 years). It's wonderful, enjoy! :)

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  9. I'm guessing it's a petunia, but what do I know? I'm lucky to keep the weeds at a dull roar around here.
    I love band and band camp and marching band competitions. I could never convince my clarinet player to switch over to the sax, so I'm a little jealous that you have the sweet sounds playing at your house.
    Post concussion syndrome is not conducive to making music, so the piano and trumpet have been rather silent for the past year. However, I am THRILLED that you have some time to yourself these days!

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