Summertime

Well, it’s not technically summer yet, but, as we all know, summer starts with Memorial Day weekend, a cold, rainy mess this year, and ends, on my calendar, on September 21 or Yom Kippur, whichever is later. I like to stretch it out.

I’m lucky enough to be able to spend my summers at the Jersey shore in what I have aptly named my “Grandma House,” due to its ability to entice my grandchildren and, hence, their parents to visit. Concededly, the summer of “Baby Shark” (I will spare you) a few years back was a bit wearying. But life at the beach makes up for pretty much everything. I love both the solitude of winter and the crowds of summer.

A home at the shore also gave me a place to hide during the pandemic. Not surprisingly, most of my neighbors, the ones who aren’t here year round, did the same. I didn’t hate the experience.

Summer is also the time to slow down. Even in retirement, rather, especially in retirement, I tend to take on a lot of things. Ok, to some people it looks like too many things. But some of those things don’t happen in the summer, and I can do a little gardening, take long walks or just sit on the porch and watch people passing by, the geese on the pond, the cars on the road.

Not to think for a while about everything wrong happening in the world is a good thing, a helpful thing. The pandemic mixed things up a lot. Every day and every night became a work day, fraught with things that must be done, even for those of us without full-time jobs. Now I’m hoping that back to normal means more regular daily routines.

Meantime, I wish you a relaxing summer, a summer of fun.
Jessica for Esther and Larry