Sweet Summertime

Summertime is in full swing here at the Tiede house.  The kennel is once again full of barking, tail wagging, large and small dogs.  It does feel good to be busy again.  Thursday nights are consumed by 4-H which I thought might slow down once both girls were done but I have come to realize that Byron will always be a 4-h'er.  I think it was Ashley who said once that if you cut her father he would bleed little green clovers!  He does enjoy it so much and I am glad that he is able to help so many kids reach heights they never thought possible.  My time seems to be consumed with mowing the lawn, which is an every other day event.  I can't complain about mowing because that is my sanity time.  I love the feeling of the sun leaving its little stinging kiss on my shoulders and I LOVE the smell of fresh cut grass.  Although, I find as I get older, my allergies do not agree with my love of the smell.  Summer is such a great time to reconnect with friends and neighbors at cookouts, the ice cream shop (the Sycamore of course!) and occasionally at the gas station while getting juice for my mower!  We have had the opportunity to share in a couple neighborhood cookouts and have enjoyed them so much.  I am still awaiting the first firefly of the summer and know that it won't be long before they start flying up out of the bean fields that surround our house!  I hate bugs but I don't really consider them in the bug category they are more like...hmmm...well, I guess they are bugs but they don't make me run, screaming like a girl!
Another childhood memory came racing to mind yesterday when I drove my car across a patch of hot tar.  The first thought was "crap" now I am going to have to get the tar remover out and clean the car but no sooner did I think that I thought wow, I hear tar bubbles.  Now, surely you all have had the pleasure of tar bubbles.  You know when the tar gets hot from the sun it actually bubbles up, late in the afternoon they begin to cool down and that is when the magic happens!  I would sit for hours when I was a kid (yes I sat in the middle of the road) needless to say it wasn't I-65!  The neighbor girls lived on a dead end, black-topped road and they would always call me when the tar bubbles were "right".  With the girls (Pam and Robin) I would sit and just pop the bubbles. Without a doubt I would get tar on some article of clothing and it would not come out, but that just didn't seem to matter!  As we got older we discovered the joy of riding our bicycles over them to hear them pop, then our cars.  ThenI grew up and was frustrated by tar on my vehicle.  I am glad I took the time to sit and think about those warm summer days and endless hours of tar bubble popping.  The Tiede girls think I am crazy when I get so excited about such a simple thing.  But it is the simple things (like fireflies, cookouts and yes, tar bubbles) that make summertime so sweet.  ENJOY!