What I Did on my Summer Vacation

Wow, what happened to summer break?

I know it's over, because our daughter, the teacher, went back to school on Wednesday.  She taught high school science for six years, but after three years of religious formation, she's now teaching high school religion.  Who says religion and science don't mix?   This girl is equally right and left brained, so I know she'll somehow link Atoms and Eve.  

She got all these school supplies for about thirty bucks at Toys R Us.   There's going to be a lot of coloring and pasting in religion class.  

Another sign summer is fading is that our garden, which was hearty in June....

...is now...well...not so hearty.

All we have left are green tomatoes, brown leaves, and several dirty plant tags.  I hope the 'maters ripen, because that gives me an excuse to buy bacon.  'Bacon' is not normally a word we speak in this household.

We had a little mishap in the steamy heat this summer.  My PT Cruiser had a flat tire.  OK, I swiped a curb too close, and the tire sprung a leak.  A really fast one that deflated the tire in about two minutes.  My girl and I were in the Kohl's parking lot, so we didn't have to push the car off the road, thank God.

We did the best we could to change the thing.  Well, the religion teacher worked hard while I took pictures.

We eventually reached the limit of what we could do, then called our Knight in Shining Armor, who took a break from jousting practice to get us back on the road.

I'm grateful to have a man in my life who can fix most anything, and I don't mind calling on him.  If this makes me a weak, dependent, I'd-rather-take-pictures-than-change-a-tire kind of woman....I'm OK with that. 

With the donut tire on the Cruiser, the Knight advised us to head straight home.  We said we'd finish shopping first.   It just made sense.  The car was just sitting there, not driving on the donut.  The Knight just shook his head and galloped off.

My daughter and I had a girl's night this summer as well, where we house-sat for a friend.  We watched Step Mom and ate glorious summer cherries and cleaned the friend's linen closet.  I also did sock curls on my girl's head before she got her hair cut the next day.

Sock curling (not to be confused with Olympic curling) is something I found on Pinterest.  We Googled it to learn more and then laughed our way through the process.

The great thing about the socks is they're soft to sleep on (and they give you a Basset Hound feeling.)  In the morning, we had loose, soft curls.  

Which are now gone, because teachers can't be fiddling with long hair during the school year.  But, boy, did we have fun.  

Another thing that got a summer haircut was our backyard scrub oak.  It had grown higher than the house and was taking over the roof.  It took about five hours to trim it back from this...

...to this.  

I'm thinking our garden will do better next summer, now that the oak isn't blocking the sunlight.  One can always hope.  

One final summer pic.  Here in Florida, there is a strip of land called Merritt Island.  On this magical piece of soil, the best mangoes in the U.S. grow.  In mango season, you can drive along the island and find baskets of mangoes for cheap.  

I have to be careful with mangoes, because I'm allergic to urshiol, the allergen just under the mango skin.  (For that story, click: HERE.)  But, if I scrub well after the peeling process, I'm in mango heaven.  I picked up a few Merritt Island mangoes this week and have been over-dosing on them since.  

Aren't they gorgeous?  I think the snake tempted Eve with a mango.  They flourish in tropical gardens like Paradise (the LOST survivors were always eating mangoes,) and apples can be resisted.  They're OK, but they're not mangoes. 

And, so the summer fades into the school year.  Thanksgiving will be here before we know it.