Summertime

The swimming lagoon, usually a the scene of a large blowup water park in the summer at Spring Lake is closed this summer because of Covid. It didn't stop this father and his daughter sitting on the shore of the main lake companionably fishing together. 

Garden chores must be accomplished early before it gets too hot, and we have been spraying down the patio in the evenings to cool it off before sitting out there to have our wine. We've been eating out there quite a bit , especially when we have guests. We had to haul out our folding table in order to have one big enough to seat two couples 6 feet away from each other. It was rarely warm enough to sit outside in the evening in Berkeley. Even if we planned for it , one never knew when the fog would roll in at 4pm and spoil the festivities.

I have fond memories of eating dinner outside in Pasadena when I was growing up. We often stayed out there until it was cool enough to go to bed, and I can still conjure up an image of sitting in near darkness with just a little light from the house...makes for some surprisingly relaxed conversations. Nobody had air conditioning in those days but my parents did put in a pool after I went away to college. John and I were married after my freshman year and we moved to Berkeley so I never really had a chance to enjoy that particular joy of Southern California living....

Peter is hoping to work this summer as a pool server at Meadowood, a very tony country club in the Napa Valley where he worked last year, but like so many other young people has no idea if or when they have work this summer. Most public pools are open for lap swimming only right now and there is no poolside meal service. The golf course where Will has worked for several summers has just broken ground for a new clubhouse to replace the one burned in the Tubbs fire, but the course was saved by the grounds crews who sneaked in to keep the greens watered right after the fire. They closed in March along with everything else because of Covid, but reopened a couple of weeks ago and Will has been working again keeping quite busy on these hot weekends making sure the starting times are spaced enough to allow for social distancing.

We continue to hunker down at home, venturing out only for well distanced outdoor coffee with friends. Despite the fact that things are opening up, the number of cases is continuing to grow and the county had another death over the weekend. I wore a damask all around Spring Lake and couldn't wait to get back to the car and take it off...it may be designer fabric and match my 'ensemble' (shorts and a t-shirt) but is still hot....