Summer's End, Reprise

The past few days have been so very warm that it has seemed like July or August all over again. Windows open again (screens still up), fan pressed back into service, but I still had trouble sleeping last night and got up to read for a while.

I've been avoiding Cormac McCarthy's work for years. THE ROAD, however, looked as if it wouldn't pull me into a tale of violence for weeks, so I prepared to take the pill. Written mostly in dialogue, the book promised to be over quickly. And it was. Bleak as bleak could be it was (not a surprise, after all the publicity), but what I appreciated most about it were sentences and fragments that were quite simply poetry. In fact, I found myself stopping to rearrange lines, breaking them mid-sentence or wherever it seemed the lines of the poem--to which I was converting the text in my mind--would break. By dawn I had finished the book, and another day of unseasonable heat began with geese honking overhead. What is their hurry? With weather like this!

David had an appointment in Traverse City, and Bruce was at the helm (sales counter) at the bookstore, keeping an eye on the gallery as well, so I went with David to the doctor, then to Another Cuppa Joe (our favorite in-town cafe), then on our usual rounds. We also, with trepidation, visited the Cherryland Humane Society. Either we "aren't ready yet" or the "dog for us" wasn't there today. Had we been fully committed to immediate adoption, there was one I could have taken into my heart, but it wasn't like the first time I saw Nikki. Of course, all those memories surged forward and engulfed me.

It isn't unusual for my first swim of the season to be postponed until September, what with cool June water and busy July and August days, but this September it didn't happen. Tonight was the night. After dinner, a drive down to Good Harbor, my favorite beach. A man coming out of the water as I was wading in said, "You have to dive in!" Later, as I was swimming out toward the setting sun and back, I saw the man talking to David on the beach. Turned out (I'd left my glasses on the beach and hadn't been able to recognize him when he spoke) it was our friend Nello Valentine from Cedar.

Now the forecast is for a cold front to move in tonight, bringing rain, but we seized the day today.