I got a new haircut. I love getting new haircuts. I wish I could grow my hair out and get a new cut every week. Sometimes I hate them, but mostly I'm pretty happy with a new style. I have a terrific hairdresser now in Bentonville. She cuts my hair with a straight razor, and really does a great job. This is a transitional cut, as I grow it out again. I'm always either cutting it off or growing it out. I never stay with a style for very long. It's boring.
Still getting used to the new glasses, too. It gets a little easier, finding the sweet spot to look through for various distances, but it still irks me. I just want to look, not look for looking, if you know what I mean.
I saw on the news that this entire region is in one of the worst droughts in history, complete with exploding hay bales in Oklahoma. Frankly, in Oklahoma, drought is so much a way of life that we should really call every non-drought year a "rainy," But the news is troubling. It's hot. Hot and dry. And unlikely to change any time soon. I also read that more people are beginning to believe in Global Warming due to the crazy weather patterns we've had this year, all over the world. Well, good. If it gets people to listen to science, I'm behind it.
Despite the brutal heat, I'm still a fan of summer. I love the lazy drone of cicadas on a summer afternoon, when it's hot enough that you're totally justified in lying still with a book in a cool room. I love hitting the surface of a cool pool on a blazing summer afternoon, or walking the spring-fed river with a cocktail in my hand. I love hearing the tree frogs at night, and I love fresh peppers and tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden. I'm less crazy about mowing in the heat, or moving (which we did last year in 110 degrees), or sitting outside in a dead calm, feeling like the sky is pressing down on you like a hot blanket (which we did on the fourth of July this year at the park, waiting for the fireworks to start: see photo below).
Nevertheless, summer goes by too quickly for me. Already it is mid-July and I haven't done much of the stuff I wanted to do: wanted to float the Buffalo River, seek out some great Arkansas waterfalls, cook out (no grill, sadly), camp... but the heat really puts a damper on any outdoor activity. Likely there won't be enough water in some of the rivers to make the waterfalls worth viewing, and doing anything outside without immediate access to cold water is not happening.
Another thing that may not be happening is the week at Galveston that I was planning on with G. There have been unexpected expenses that make it ill advisable to spend money on travel. And yet I can't give up the idea. Soon, maybe as soon as next summer, my boy will be too adolescent to want to travel with his mom. He'll be twelve in September, nearly thirteen by next summer... I really want to get this special time with him while there's still some little boy left. I will do everything in my power to make that trip happen. A few days of sea and sand will make up for a lot of other stuff we haven't been able to do.
He's been gone so much. I suppose I should get used to it in the summers, so he can spend extended time with his dad. I suppose I should be grateful that his dad wants to spend that kind of time with him. But I miss him, and I want to do special stuff with him in the summer... and I haven't really. He's been in day camps and classes and fun stuff like that when he's with his dad, but I haven't found anything similar for him here. I fear he's bored.
On the other hand, I remember being bored in the summer, and I took no damage from it. I stayed up late watching old movies, spent hours at the pool or the library, watched a lot of bad TV (my mom and I got sucked into some dreadful 1970s soap opera one year when I was ten or eleven), and read and read and read. I still remember those lazy days fondly, so maybe it won't leave him emotionally scarred to be at home with the dogs, the computer and the TV for parts of the summer.
I just learned that the Perseid meteor shower is August 11, a Saturday night, conveniently. So I will plan for us to be out in the country somewhere that evening to take advantage of the dark Arkansas sky. When the moon eclipsed last year, I woke Grayson up at 3 a.m. to come out and see it. He was suitably impressed. We've tried a few times to view meteor showers, but either we don't see any because we're in town, or else I fall asleep and miss the peak, or else I blow it off. This year I mean to see it, just to add it to my list of Things I Did With My Kid this Summer. So I can say I did something.
Here's what we've done so far:
River walking.
This is on Sugar Creek in Bella Vista. It's spring-fed and COLD.
Fireworks igniting and watching. (The Bentonville fireworks show was excellent, despite the brutal heat. We went with John and his sister Rian, and were well fortified with cocktails.)
First Friday on the Bentonville Downtown Square. Grayson loves the bungee jumper. Last First Friday, however, one of the bungees stretched several feet unexpectedly and dropped him a bit. Fortunately, I didn't see this, it probably would have given me a heart attack. G was undamaged, and says it won't deter him from jumping again.
We've also gone swimming, roller skating and seen movies. I guess it's not so bad. We find ways to keep ourselves entertained.
This two weeks, of course, I'm living with John again. It's a quiet joy to have him home with me. We don't do much besides cook and watch television and hang out. But it's so comfortable, and comforting to wake up with him and go to bed with him. I miss him when Grayson comes home. So I guess I'm always missing someone!
Typical. Chronically disappointed.
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