summertime and the living is easy
For the last couple months, our neighbors have had to bear the cross of looking at our messy front lawn littered with two to three times more bikes than there are people in the house. Last night I finally, for the first time since the snow melted enough to let us get in the shed, put them all away (well, not including the plastic ones that don't live in the shed, but you know). As I considered this triumphant success, it occurred to me that there was a reason it finally happened on the evening of May 4th: it was finally warm enough that I enjoyed being out in the evening.
Usually, putting bikes away is close to the last chore of the day. And even on warm days this spring it's been pretty cold in the evenings, and the last thing I want to do after a hard day of... doing whatever it is I spend my time on, is mooch around in the cold shoving 14 bikes under the porch. So I didn't. I got to the more valuable or vulnerable ones most nights, but the broken tricycles and plastic scooters—all the ones that the kids like to use now and again, but that I don't care what happens to—they pretty much lived on the front lawn. Sorry neighbors. Now that summer is here it's a new regime of cleanliness out there.
Not that I'm all in favor of this sort of heat so early in the season (it must have been in the 80s for the second day in a row today). It's kind of a shock to the system, both for me and for the plants I'm trying to get in the garden. But on the other hand it sure is nice to be able to walk outside any time, from before sunrise to just before bed, without having to worry about adding clothes or catching your death. It makes those 5:24 am chicken chores just that much nicer! And having the windows open and fans running upstairs while we put the kids to bed: very pleasant.
Yes, summer in May. Swimming yesterday, ice cream store this evening... why do I still have to go to work again?