judifilksign

Sent the boyos off to Scout Camp today. They'll be gone until Saturday. Sparkle moped because her boys were gone.

After supper, Sparkle asked to go on her very own bike ride again. So, I helmeted her up, and we started on the road after the gravel drive, because pedaling on the gravel is so hard with training wheels.

Sparkle was much more self-directed today, pedaling hard to go uphill "I will be a big strong girl!" and pedaling backwards to stop without being directed to do so by me at all. She went the short block again, and seemed pretty puffed by the end. While the thermometer in our porch shade said 81 degrees, on the blacktop of our streets, it felt much hotter. It was also pretty hazy. The trees just down the street were blue-gray with heat haze.

I decided to hop on the bike right after, before I lost the vim and verve to do so. I saw many mirage puddles today, too, and ended up riding on the "wrong" side of the empty trail to be in the shade as much as possible.

Today's critters were butterflies. There were many flowers open I'd never noticed before, like trumpet vine, which close at night. There were also clover and day lilies. Crowding about the flowers were butterflies of all description: white ones, white ones with brown spots, orange ones, monarchs, yellow ones, brown ones with orange and yellow, little cornflower blue ones, and brown ones with white dots. They fluttered past on the trail, being puffed about with wind, and catching the sunlight in beautiful flashes. They were very happy making for me.

It was hot and I felt the heat shimmer a great deal, so I told myself I'd turn around at the first road. I was over it and pedaling uphill when I remembered that I was going to go home. As I was berating myself for being silly, and remembering how I'd told

pondside that I sometimes lied to myself to keep myself going, and wondering whether I'd lied, or just was a flake, I realized I was up the hard part, and had downhill to the bridge. I had to ride over it in honor of my non-present daughter. So I did.

At the second road, I did turn around, and drank deeply of my water. I started back, and went back over the bridge. A couple of teens passed me from behind, a girl and a boy. The girl gasped, as they were just barely past me, "Did you SEE that? She was riding a bike IN A DRESS! Can you BELIEVE it? Oh. My. Gawd."

The boy was like, "It was a girl. She was in a dress. So?"

"That wasn't a GIRL," protested the teen girl. "It was an old woman. What does she think she is?"

"That was a mom girl, not an old woman," the boy said, glancing over his shoulder and seeing me laughing silently. "She gets to dress however she wants to, just like you do."

"WhatEVAR," the teen said, and they continued on. I give full mental props to the guy for being more socially aware and hip than she was.

Over the first road, and coasting a bit into my townlet, I smelled several people grilling out for their Sunday suppers. Um, I'd just eaten, but the juicy smells of steak in the air made my mouth water! I counted five grills being manned, and those were just the ones I could see.

Home, I noticed that there were red cardinals and blue jays circling around one another in my yard. Happy sighs, although I am tuckered out.