Due dates, Deadlines, and Deviant Art

This is what I wish I could do all day. Heck, this is what I wish I could do all summer. But with a book and an iced tea. And maybe I wouldn't try to sit in the windowsill. But you know what I mean.

But I won't be sitting in a windowsill or anything else. It feels like we're already in the home stretch for the end of summer and things are speeding up. Or rather, have never slowed down and found a summer pace ever, not once this season. We spent the end of spring and beginning of summer traveling, then filled up our time with lots of company and any number of summer viruses. More day trip travel for errands, doctor's appointments and what not. And last but not least, heat and smoke making everything complicated and NOT fun. (and really, are you as sick and tired of hearing me talk about the weather as I am of hearing me talk about the weather!?)

My daughter Noel is going to have a baby any time now, her due date is tomorrow. I'll be zipping up to Washington state to help her out after the birth and then zipping back to work frantically to get costumes and camping gear all ready and packed for the festival. And after that, it's August. And although that might still technically be summer, for us it's the beginning of fall with school and football not waiting to start filling up the calendar again.

Summer. A nice season. If you can find it.

I'm busy sewing and cleaning but I'm going to try to find a few hours of summer this afternoon by visiting the first day of our county fair as, depending on when I leave town, it might be my only chance to attend. Some of you know I've had my ups and then downs with the fair, and I was frustrated and concerned about their decision to charge high fees for fair entries this year, so I'm wondering what I'll find. It would be nice to discover I'm wrong and the fair is lovely this year, but the snarky side of me is sort of sure I'm not and it isn't. We'll see. I'll let you know.

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I don't spend a lot of time in William's lair...er, room. Mainly it consists of picking my way through size 13 shoes and computer equipment to find him in the semi darkness to give him a kiss goodnight or opening and standing in the doorway to proclaim "STEPS WILL BE TAKEN IF YOU DON'T GET OFF THE COMPUTER AND GO UNLOAD THE DISHWASHER NOW!"

But for some reason, which I've already forgotten, I was stumbling around in his room looking for something last week. I think I was looking for something for him that he swore wasn't in his room and I swore was - but in any case, I was in his room when I noticed this addition to his interior design.


Those are William's initials so I'm guessing that rather tall stick stick figure is William himself. "Self Portrait in Duct Tape".

I think it was inspired by residual creative energy left over from the biology field trip. On the instruction sheet given out to parents, in the list of things to send with your child, was duct tape, and plenty of it. Theoretically they use it to hold down tents in the wind and fashion all manner of rain gear in the typical foggy and rainy coastal weather. Of course the teenagers don't actually use it for any of those purposes. Instead they duct tape friends (yes, cover an entire person in duct tape) and make duct tape footballs and duct tape locks so that people find themselves unable to open their tent zippers. I was an exceptionally good parent this year and found duct tape in the school colors of gold and purple. He used it to duct tape up his best friend James. Maybe he then stole James' silver duct tape from him and this is what he brought home.


Now that William has a job ("Would you like me to Super Size that item, sir?") he's decided to stock up on the basic necessities. I refuse to buy these for him anymore. Oh well, at least I don't have to listen to him arguing his case for them anymore. He's buying his own case.

So, that's it. I hope you weren't looking for me to drip pearls of wisdom today. I'm off to look at sheep, dahlias in a glass jar, watercolor paintings of someone's child, radishes on a paper plate, pigs, bunnies, quilts, jars of pickled beans, paper mache bowls, and of course the odd people a fair always pulls out from the etherworld. I might even splurge and get myself an Indian Taco. Yes. Definitely. And a Lemonade. And maybe top it off with a strawberry shortcake at the Fair Boosters stand. I might find a little summer this afternoon at that!