Summertime and the Livin' is Easy

In last night's dream it was summer.

I was reclining in a beach chair out in the yard, working on some tricky layout for a print job, contentedly surrounded by lush spring green grass. Of a sudden, I noticed a matte black, beetle, the size of a small dog with a carapace to rival any tank sitting next to me.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

Still, bugs and all, I can’t wait for summer and the days of laying about in the yard. The Amazing Bob will be listening to the Sox with Gaston flopped out next to him on the warmed slate squares at the foot of the stairs. Oni, Jen and I will be buried in our sci fi tomes and novellas. Coco will be in my lap with Gus all comfy in Jen’s. Our lone wolf Rocco, eschewing the madding crowds...and shit, will be curled up in a patch of sun on the back porch. There will be bowls of guacamole and salsa, grilled asparagus for dipping and amazingly fabulous Jen-crafted light, misty even, cocktails.

At high tide we’ll cross the street and jump into the cool salty bay. OK, Jen and Oni will jump in. Me? Being the wickedly tippy thing that I am, I’ll wade in with my big old inner tube. TAB will sit on the seawall steps, cooling his tootsies in the lapping waves.

And then we’ll go back to our lawn chairs, books and the big game.

Ahhhh, summer!

Next winter, in an effort to head off our usual winter stress, blahs and illnesses, TAB and I are considering a change of scenery. Now, not being Rockefellers or Bushes, we can’t absent ourselves for the entire season but, possibly, we can duck out for a week.

Will that help? Potentially.

A friend, who’s from the Dominican Republic, told me about Cabrera. He said there was great surfing and the town hadn’t been overrun with tourists yet. This was a couple of years ago and it seems, since then, the joints gotten all discovered out. RATS!

Where to go on the cheap that’s warm and sunny?!

Another thought is Amsterdam. Of course. TAB and I can spend befogged days in the coffee houses around the Leidesplein before we head to the Alto for an evening of hot jazz.

Again I ask -- will this help? Hells, can’t hurt!


Lena Horne singing Summertime from Porgy and Bess