1:00 p.m.

I think a month goes by as fast as a week (or less) used to. I never get used to it. I can remember when summer lasted a long time. Now it seems like the other three seasons together go by faster than summer used to go.

I’m in a mood, today. Woke up that way. I can’t remember enough of my dream to know what set it off, but waking up cold did not help. I’ve come out to the balcony and am surprised. It’s no warmer outside. Not that it’s cold inside as long as long as I stay out of the way of fans and a/c ducts.

Mood is already vastly improved just being outside. Today feels like the summers of my childhood, back when anything over 90° was WOW! Odd. There are sounds–traffic on the road to the north and other, farther busy roads down the hill from us, someone hammering, crows intermittently cawing and jays squawking, and occasional voice, dog, and distant siren. All of that, but it seems quiet to me. It feels quiet. It makes me wonder: is the nostalgic summer feeling a cause or a result of the quiet non-quiet?

It’s perfect working weather. I think I’ll (pun<– funny typo) put on some jeans and go paint and/or garden.

4: p.m.

I’ve been painting my deck furniture. It’s not unreasonably hot. Very nice actually. But . . . I had to kneel on the ground to apply the painter’s tape to the glass table top, one inch at a time because of the curve. I still didn’t feel hot, but I’m now soaked. It’s still not as bad as Virginia, but it’s hard to tape something when you’re raining on it. It also got cloudy. That’s an oddity here in summer. Usually it’s unrelenting sunshine. My mom hated that much sunshine (maybe the gardener in her), but I love it.

Well, I’m dry now. I’m going to put my hair up and get back to work.

8:08 p.m.

So, I worked outside until about 6:30, painting and then cutting away dead flower heads here and there. I came in and sat in front of the fan for a bit and then went to take a much needed shower. Just as I was stepping into the shower, Iqbal cracked open the door and said “You won’t believe it! The sun came out. And it’s raining. Hard!” How odd! It was done when I came out. I hope my paint was dry enough not to get messed up. But it smelled so good!

It has been such an odd day in a nostalgic way. Like I’m transported back to Rochester, NY in the early 60s. We often had days like this, except no sun and rain at the same time (though I remember once when it was raining at the other end of the block, but not at our house). Also the rain was likely to be a thunderstorm. We don’t get many thunderstorms in the valley here. Which is good. We don’t need fires like we had in 2020.

Good News! After not being able to talk at all for two days, and struggling to say anything for two days, today Kris was able to say the alphabet, numbers, and months. I’m assuming that that was with therapy, which I think was supposed to start today, but whatever it was, it’s a VERY good sign.

Several of the Ragmates, sparked by Deb G. (I believe), were talking last week (I think) about hand sewing clothing. I haven’t joined in until now, but it immediately took me back to the summer before I married. I had a summer job working at Kodak. I don’t remember the reason, but Iqbal had bought me some fabric for a dress. Since we were spending all my non-working, non-sleeping time together, the only time I had was lunch and break time at work. After cutting out the pieces, I took them with me to work. Mostly I remember sewing under a tree at lunch and really enjoying it. I also remember it was easier to put in a zipper by hand than by machine. And it ended up being one of my favorite dresses. I don’t know what ever happened to it. Probably was given to a Goodwill or Salvation Army thrift store when it no longer fit.

Anyway, everyone’s comments on the subject reminded me of that dress, and remembering how much I enjoyed making it and liked it, I’ve decided to make another. And more if I still enjoy it. I always plan to make some dresses, and then never do. Is it the machine sewing that puts me off? I don’t know. We’ll see. I wear less fitted clothing these days, so it’ll be a less complicated pattern. But I don’t want something shapeless, so it will definitely be a pattern, though I may be changing the original pattern. At the moment, I can’t think of what exactly I want, but I’ll remember as I pull out my fabrics. Or get new ideas. I hope to get to it soon . . . maybe when it gets too hot again next weekend. Maybe.

Mostly I just want to play with fabric, though. I need to make something planned to get me started, but it’s the scraps that call me. Now that my box of scraps is accessible, I want to dig in. But I have kept away because there are other things I want to get done first, like having a clean space to work in. (Not that it’ll stay that way.) And outdoor work that I know I won’t do after summer.

I think I need to learn to stop putting off what I want to do, but it’s not for things I don’t want to do, usually. I mean, I don’t want to clean particularly, but I want things to be clean. And I want things organized. I really enjoy working outside. It’s a conundrum to figure out how to balance these things when one is an ADD, decision-making challenged person.