Suddenly, Summer is Over

Vacation was the star on the horizon to which I fixed my gaze, and now it is over, and D is back in school, Keith will go back Monday, and SUMMER IS OVER.

Keith became Master of the One Match Campfire on this trip.

I made pancakes and they were good.

The girls spent all of their time in the River.

First Day of Seventh Grade

I walk down Kingwood Street to work every morning and when Dawn and the Mimosa Blooms all come together I know it is summer.  Unfortunately for me, most of my sunrises this year were obscured by rain clouds - I'm not complaining, I have a bounty of Spaceship Squash and Tomatoes because of the rain.  But I am a little disappointed, because I am a hot weather girl, and I had about 4 weeks this summer of weather that was warm enough for me not to wear a sweater.  This week, when I started back after our hiatus, it was no longer light out on my walk to work, and the Mimosa showed me her gigantic seed pods, and the last hurrah of her freaky pink blooms, and I could smell the stale beer/vomit odor that heralds the return of the WVU students, and I knew... SUMMER IS OVER.

Technically it doesn't end till the autumnal equinox, but practically, in this town at least, all sense of ease and peace that the long warm days conveyed has evaporated in a haze of pot smoke and booze fumes and Hummer exhaust.  As I walked home this afternoon, some new resident of Clark Street stood on his porch, chucking beer bottles from the night before in the general direction of the trash cans sitting on the sidewalk, sometimes making it, sometimes hitting the concrete with a resounding shattering of glass.  The little old man in my soul wanted to holler, "you know the city has curbside recycling, right? Put those bottles in the GREEN CAN MARKED RECYCLABLES!" But I said nothing, mostly because I do not trust myself to have a civil conversation with a kid who drives a car more expensive than my house, but also leaves broken glass all over the sidewalk.  I walked on home, past the newly broken window of the AstroVan at the corner of Cherry and Clark - The owner is a customer at the shop, he has a little kid, he put cardboard over the window till he can afford to get it replaced.  It rains almost every day here... SUMMER IS OVER

I made a new necklace with fishing line and some beads.

It has been a rough summer for me, in my brain - maybe I could go get my meds adjusted but I think I need to go hike more instead.  My kid is asserting her independence beautifully, although she mostly speaks to me in monosyllables and when I touch her things she yells "No!" at me as if I were a dog.  When I sit on the couch next to her to watch TV, she turns off her show and goes upstairs.  I just offered to make pancakes for breakfast and she went into the kitchen and made herself a bowl of cereal.  She does well in school and everyone says she is polite and kind and a pleasure to be around but I feel like I have failed somehow in the only job I ever had that was really important. This summer felt like the Universe saying to me "you are not Mother Material, You got one and she survived, but in spite of you, You do not deserve another."  That's how it felt.  But now SUMMER IS OVER and there has to be peace in there somewhere if I can just accept it.

Three is a Magic Number

Tuesday Lunch Date

Keith and I wandered downtown Tuesday and didn't know where we were going until we ended up at the Morgantown Brewing Company for our lunch date.  For a change of pace we sat in the dining room, which is all dark wood and low lights and all over the walls are drawings of different parts of the city.  Very cool, I would like to get some of that art for my own house!  They were out of Alpha Blonde, which is one of Keith's favorite beers, so that was a big old bummer to start with.  Fortunately for me there was plenty of Coal City Stout on tap, and Tuesdays are Two, Two, Two Beers for the price of One! Unfortunately, I couldn't drink 2 beers.

We usually end up at the BrewPub on nice afternoons when we can sit on the deck and watch traffic stream across the Westover Bridge.  Yesterday was cold and windy, and we were hungry, so we sat in the dining room and ordered lunch.  I have to say I was not terribly impressed with the food there.  I got a Veggie Melt, and it was just so-so.  Really, it was the sad wilted lettuce that threw me. Perhaps the sandwich was microwaved, or they put the lettuce on it and then sat it under a holding lamp for a while. Either way, ick.  If I were making that sandwich at home, I would have done it differently, and it wouldn't have been so greasy or cost me nine freaking bucks. 

The onion rings were just OK, and they could have been warmer.  I LOVE onion rings, but even with Keith's help I couldn't eat them all.

Keith's fish sandwich was ok, he said, but not particularly hot.  It looked nice and crispy but evidently was on the cold and greasy side.  The fries were the weird seasoned kind that I don't particularly care for, but I ate some of them anyway because it is my job as Keith's wife to never let him eat all of anything ever again.  He gave me the last french fry but I clumsily dropped it on the floor, smearing catchup on every article of clothing I was wearing, and then it got stuck in the tread of my shoe.  So yeah, maybe we got caught in a little cosmic eddie of mediocrity.  But the BrewPub sandwich prices are higher than most of our other regular lunch haunts, and in my opinion the food is just not good enough for me to pay two extra dollars.  Because I am a cheap bastard.

I love having beers at the BrewPub, the bartender is awesome, the beers are tasty, and the atmosphere is pleasant.  In the future I am just going to have my meal somewhere else.

Produce Time!

The bins from Round Right Farm CSA were full to bursting with good stuff this week! All local, all organic, and ALL DELICIOUS! I just ate one of the big tomatoes for my lunch, and it was the tomato I have been waiting all summer to taste.

I really lucked out this week, because I didn't get a spot on the CSA list this year, but since they drop off the produce for South Park at the bakery and several somebodies didn't come pick up their shares yesterday (on vacation, maybe?), we got to split up the bounty and take it home so it wouldn't go to waste.

What shall I do with TWO KINDS OF BEETS? Sorry for yelling but beets just make me SO HAPPY. Corn, shallots, peppers, cucumber, onions, carrots, lettuce, red potatoes, green beans, four different kinds of tomatoes, and did I mention both red and golden BEETS? Mom, are you coming over for supper?

Decker's Creek Project

Sunday our family took part in an Eco Art Project Thingy organized by Basia Irland, a visiting artist at WVU. Many people walked, biked, kayaked, and waded the length of Decker's Creek, which if you aren't familiar, is an historic waterway that runs from Arthurdale through Morgantown.

Our group was made up of my cousin Malissa, her three daughters, her future sister-in-law, and me, Keith and Delia (and a dog, who is apparently really good at math). We symbolically carried the water in a baby stroller. Of course we did not actually get the water anywhere near the baby, because although Friends of Decker's Creek is working on improving the water quality, the creek water is contaminated by acid mine drainage and untreated sewer overflow. There are signs posted near the beginning of the Decker's Creek rail trail that explicitly warn people of the dangers hidden in the water.

Naomi got to carry the Symbolic Backpack. I thought that was cool until I heard the artist say they "painted" it with creek mud. I might be too sensitive to microorganisms and heavy metals, but that gave me the creeps.

Basia Irland seemed like a real nice lady. I hear she has done projects like this before with other waterways. She didn't seem too afraid of getting a staph infection from the water, so I guess I should just chill out about it.

Here Malissa is putting some creek water into the Symbolic Vessel that was made for the project. (which is somewhat funny to me, because Malissa and Nature have never been particularly close). By the time the Vessel made it to us, barely a mile from the end of the trail, it no longer had a stopper, and so the bag it was in and the logbook were all wet.



I guess my fear of waterborne illness really spoiled the whole thing for me. We didn't go on to the end of the trail because of poor planning on our part. We parted ways with the group after Malissa handed the vessel off to the next guy, who was WADING to the next stop. Brave Soul.

I have been known to revel in many a creek and never give a thought to where the water is coming from or what is in it. But Decker's Creek is orange, and I have read the warnings posted about the health hazards. I reckon that was the point of the exercise, to make people think about this waterway that runs through our town.

Up next. a few pictures of Decker's Creek.