Summer 2015: Days 39-41

This recap is coming to you at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning. I've been naturally waking up 6 a.m. the last couple days, swim practice or no swim practice, and not falling back asleep. I'm on my front porch, and there's a little bit of cloud cover making the morning a little cooler than the past couple weeks. It feels good and almost reminds of Chicago. I like mornings but just hate waking up for them, so this sleep pattern has been somewhat welcome. At leas for today, I'm appreciating it.

Now to write about the past three days. Wednesday was uneventful. Ben tried a kids yoga class and liked it. And hell, it was so hot again.

On Thursday, after a busy day, I had a craving for a Dairy Queen Blizzard. The Blizzard was introduced 30 years ago, and my older friends who had cars and I would drive to the DQ on Irving Park Road just for it (the Dairy Queen in Park Ridge was franchised and hadn't bought the machine to make Blizzards yet, so we'd go the extra few miles in the other direction to do so). I was feeling nostalgic, so I put on a Summer 1985 mix and took the family to the DQ in Holladay. The Blizzard was good (peanut butter Oreo -- not quite the Oreo Blizzards I loved 30 years ago, but close), though this DQ didn't have outside seating so we were indoors, which lessened the experience a little. I got the dog out for a long walk when I got home.

Friday, I took the dog for a long hike up Rattlesnake Gulch in the morning. I wanted to get her out before the heat and so I wasn't walking her with fireworks going off by impatient people on the evening of July 3. The hike was nice and a good start to the day. Later, we went to the JCC pool for a few hours, and the boys got to swim without having to worry about swim practice. The water felt nice. Lori made spaghetti for dinner, and I played a game of Dice Masters with Ben before bed.

Today is July 4, and I'm looking forward to a great day. I need to get a little work done, and I'm looking at the weeds in the backyard with a destructive eye, but I'm planning on enjoying this summer milestone. At least I'm up early for it.

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