Reflections of Summer / Prodigal's Return

It was to be a hot day, so we planned accordingly. We decided to go for a swim at Whipple Dam, our second swim there of the season. We'd swing by Doan's Bones for takeout ribs on the way home. The last time we were at Whipple, there were lots of Amish, celebrating a holiday. This time, there were quite a few people on the beach, but hardly any fishermen; no Amish, not a one.

I am delighted to report that the water was colder than ever, which someone like me finds refreshing indeed. I'd purchased yet another new bathing suit the day before at Ocean State Job Lot. I'm not sure I needed it but I wanted it, and I had some idea - even sitting there on its hanger - how well it might fit. So once again, here I was at Whipple Dam, in a new suit. It sells for around $33 on Amazon; I got it for $10. I can't resist a bargain. And okay, yes, so it IS seriously adorable.

We left the car part-way in and hiked the rest of the way into the swimming area, which meant I got both a hike AND a swim on this day. I wore a brace on my left knee two days this week; slowing things down and being extra careful seems to be helping. The knee is doing better, which is good news. I am a walker, and I can't bear having my routines disrupted!

Oh, and I never got back to you with the story on my tick bites. I got one tick at Black Moshannon, and a second tick at Moshannon State Forest. Tick number 1 was negative for all the bad stuff, which is good because it was in me a while, so they said. Tick number 2 was positive for Lyme disease, but the tick was not in me long enough for the disease to be passed; it takes more than 24 hours for transmission to occur. I was double lucky this time, but playing tick roulette is no fun at all! Several family members have had Lyme, by the way. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Pennsylvania leads the nation in Lyme disease. :-(

I sent both ticks in to the Tick Lab in eastern PA; just after that, there was a fire there, and all of my results were delayed. I sent my ticks in the mail on 5/22 and 5/31; got my results back on 6/5 and 6/10. The tick bites got itchy, and I scratched them plenty, but I never got the bull's-eye rash that is a telltale sign of Lyme; they say 60 to 80 percent of the people who get Lyme get the rash, while the rest don't.

Anyway, that brings us up to speed on THAT. As we were taking our leave of Whipple Dam, I stopped for a few minutes to photograph the reflections and patterns on the water below the spillway. So that is what you are looking at in the photo above.

And there is a second photo for this day, for in the evening, my husband walked out onto the front porch and yelled, "Where's my TABBYCAT?" And out strolled LGK, the neighbor kitty, from underneath his car! We had not seen him in weeks and weeks. He doesn't like the heat, and we don't typically see him much in summertime, but here he is in the extras, looking like he might have even lost a pound or two. The prodigal has returned!

Now, I've got two photos, so here are two songs. First, for the one above, I was hearing song lyrics in my head from this one (They give us those nice bright colors/They give us the greens of summers/Make you think all the world's/A sunny day!), so here's Kodachrome, by Paul Simon. For the return of the tabbycat in the extras, I wanted a song with return in it. So here is Point of Know Return, by Kansas.