Friday, June 28, 2013

June Tomatoes….




We got our first tomatoes today… 3 red cherry, one orange cherry tomatoes… sliced with salt, pepper and basil from the garden, a little olive oil, some balsamic vinegar… a couple of bites each… but… June tomatoes…  My tomatoes went in late this year and I don’t deserve June tomatoes…

Garrison Keeler in his Lake Woebegone stories speaks of tomatoes in the garden, of the shame of the tomato dole… Speaking to ones failure to cultivate and care for tomatoes…  While this year I am not a leader, I have June tomatoes and so, am not on the tomato dole… 

It is hot… Work was 80 some… I reached over 90 on the way home… It promises to get hotter this weekend… They are predicting 120+ temperatures in Death Valley… high 120’s… some are suggesting they might reach the magical 134, the official hottest day on record.  If I didn’t have responsibilities, I might take a quick trip to the Valley of Death to see how hot hot can be… Sadly, not this time… but there is the possibility of a long hot summer, with decreasing responsibilities… and if hot is promised, maybe a trip to hot…

The tomatoes like the heat (if I keep then watered…)

The ladies are off early tomorrow… very early… ungodly early… a 4:30 am alarm… flying to Vancouver Canada to meet their ship… for a trip to Alaska via the inside passage.  I will be staying home… caring for the dogs and giving the diabetic cat her insulin shots…  going to work… (56 days left!) avoiding the park’s picket lines… and writing… I have a project due…  

At work (56 days… but who is counting) things are weird… I am not as productive as I would like… there are distractions… the park employees are likely to go on strike on July 4th and 5th… I work for the city, in the center of one of their parks… I am sympathetic to their strike…  The Park has canceled July 4th, or at least the common national celebration… It is not clear what the house is supposed to be doing… I expect to go to work, stop and speak to the picketers… likely deliver donuts… then go to work to deal with the unknown situation…  I will lock the place down about 3:00, and go home to the dogs and barbeque something… 

It is also weird at work for a different reason… I am leaving… others know this… there is an expectation that I am not really working… just holding court for the near future… people don’t expect me to be there, to try... I would be easy to meet their expectations… I am trying not to.

I could be sitting with a cold beer under the grape arbor… for it is hot…

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