OLLI Resumes

It's been a good summer off.  Made it to downstate destinations, made it across to the America's opposite coast, welcomed a new Rabbi who has made Saturday morning a more desirable destination for me.  Some of my anticipated mental activity did not fare as well, and the lazy hazy days of summer did not generate a very good work ethic.  But the fall transition begins soon, delayed a week by my long anticipated trip to Europe. 

Fall has always been my favorite season, a transition from amusement to achievement, though not to the total obliteration of amusement.  We have the Holy Days.  College Football begins this weekend.  School now resumes before Labor Day in many places, with the Back to School ads largely gone as retailers look ahead to Halloween.  And travel gets a little less spontaneous.  It's hard to be my Best Me in the hot summer.  Fall seems more conducive to effort.  And a week or so in France may be just the right inflection point.

While I am overseas, the Osher Institute's Fall semester resumes.  Three of the teachers have sent me their syllabus or introduction for four of the five classes in which I have enrolled.  Three of the four will follow a video series, either a Great Courses program with discussion or independent weekly DVDs related to the topic.  The other seems more a lecture format.  The fifth, a lecture series on the New Testament will remain a surprise until my first class.  Four of the five are on site at the OLLI Campus which immerses me with people after something of a summer lapse, only partially compensated by my renewed and honestly unanticipated affinity for my weekly synagogue attendance.

School restores a focus on work as a primary activity.  My mind engages during the class presentations, but it also engages in conversation, looking at the artwork that they hang on the walls, walking on the campus grounds wondering about the plants.  I will sometimes bring my laptop, particularly if I have two classes separated by a lunch break, or my writing portfolio if I don't.  Leaving the house to get there, about a twenty-minute drive each way, reinforces that this is a destination, one not easily duplicated at home.

So some time in France to conclude the summer, then the sometimes serious business of being an active senior.

Onset of Summer

Father's Day appears in proximity of the summer solstice.  I guess the Dads of evolutionary biology were in their busy season.  Now the summers need an escape to the air conditioners in the Northern Hemisphere.  The summer finds me well as a senior citizen with one small loose end on last week's lab results.  Energy could be better, disposition has taken a hit when I stopped my citalopram, and for good reason, my doctors' visits cluster around this time.  But I'm also ready to eat into some of that accumulated recreational deprivation.  

The amusement park did not go especially well at making me more animated.  See if the regional beach days do better.  

Summer also brings me to the second half of each year with new semi-annual projects to pursue.  Completed the twelve initiative list, put it in weekly planning nylon pouch to stay dormant for another two weeks, then adjust the whiteboard with the new list.  And I didn't do too badly with the concluding set of projects.  I'm ready to make the transition.

Maybe even fewer physical symptoms and more intrinsic cheer.

And the Living Is Easy

Summertime.  I'd probably not want to live in a place that did not have all four distinct seasons at least identifiable.  Being at a place that allots them their annual quarter seems an added plus.  Activities don't really suspend in the summer.  They get substituted.  OLLI goes dormant with a brief interlude to register for when it resumes.  It's the right time to let my synagogue attendance go dormant in a parallel way, even though the cycles and obligations of Judaism really don't change.  I'm long past summer camp.  While in retirement I can travel anytime, or even during employment once the kids were no longer dependent, summer still has a flexibility  for either pursuing this or for planning the major expeditions for the fall when the crowds dissipate.  I will need some hotels and airlines later but arrange them while it's still summer.

Our local Christmas Tree Shops maintains a quadrant for seasonal living which I just toured.  Next holiday, Memorial Day for which people already purchased specifics, though mentally that opens our summer season even if the astronomers take a different view.  Despite what some in the opposing political camp may assert, I'm a pretty worthy American.  I do things that advance America conceptually, defend it from setbacks, and contribute taxes and ideas.  I don't buy a lot of flag merchandise but own some, wear it not only on those days, and display the flag outside the front door.  I don't buy more merchandise for the celebration.  Barbecue has become part of the holiday experience.  They had items to make that happen as part of the 4Jy section.  Not used my equipment.  Probably should but not a great priority.  Guess I'm more a kitchen maven.

Swimming or other aquatics has a more enduring section not targeted to a specific event.  For the summer, I plan visits to two Delaware beaches, Ocean City though probably as a non-aquatic sightseer, and a water park.  Bought a plastic device that I could insert into the sand with a container to hold a can of soda or other stuff.  Already have everything I need for getting wet, drying off,  or reducing the downsides of sun exposure.  

This is the year that my gardens will flourish, or so my imagination prompted me last December when I set my semi-annual projects.  Thus far they have, and with the assistance of the Christmas Tree Shops.  Seeds and stems from nursery now all fully planted.  Got a new watering can.  Have enough tools and seem to know where they are.  Parceled different parts of my plantings to focus on small segments at a time, with thinning of what has sprouted looming as the next project.

People go for picnics.  I've allotted two picnics.  People sit on their patios.  I had my backyard deck refinished a few years ago.  Not a good risk for a portable fire pit, as attractive as they appear.  Don't particularly like eating outside when I have a fully functional kitchen and dining room.

For some reason I do most of my house upgrades in summer.  Invested in landscaping in the spring.  Need to revive the living room and dining room visually, which will mean curtains and a sofa.  Christmas Tree Shops had curtains and rods, though something like this I'd like a broader selection of more durable quality.  Wayfair or IKEA is probably better.  But the suspension of many activities of the spring and fall better enable time to be dedicated to this.  Not hard to do, but need to do it.  Some things of summer are not unique to summer, but seasonally convenient.

So as Memorial Day and Shavuot approach, and I as I reap some of the attention to personal fitness that I've undertaken since the winter, I'm ready to immerse myself in some neglected recreation.  Touring the Christmas Tree Shops generated some useful ideas on how to best do this.

Hot Sultry Days

Each summer has its heat waves, contributing to those lazy hazy days of summer.  Parts of America have it much worse than I have experienced in the mid-Atlantic thus far, and of course I've lived through some other sever heat cycles both in the midwest and midAtlantic that generated warnings to those in less than optimal health to seek air conditioned spaces.  While the week has arrived here, the dire warnings come my way from the news media or FB posts by friends in the more severely affected locations.  

Some of my recreation requires modification.  While going to the putting green is enjoyable, maybe even more frequent now that my new synagogue location sits nearby, and the drive in an air conditioned car is pleasant, getting out of the car and walking from the lot to the putting surface may not be.  Don't really want to stand out in the hot sun overcome by humidity casting a fishing rod.  Kept bicycle on my list though I probably won't ride it.  My ventures are mostly around the block so humidity won't matter much.  Serious riding, not a chance.  I still consider my time on a local park bench protected time for me and my mind.  It's duration may become shorter.  Rain pre-empts the outing, heat does not.  And working on my photography skills usually goes better outdoors than indoors.  It can continue.  Garden care will be scaled back, though not eliminated, particularly since the main garden could use some watering tomorrow, perhaps even later today.

My acquired fondness for air conditioning, which I did not have available to me as a youth either at home, car, or school, still leaves me plenty of options for fulfilling activities in My Space, tidying around the house, engaging in some kitchen creations.  And for short bursts, setting the AC aside to enjoy nature, of which our weather remains a vital component.

Summertime 2021

And the living is easy.  Or maybe not that easy.  Sweltering days have arrived, though to my surprise the container plantings with commercial potting soil have all retained their moisture from the last deluge a few  days back.  I've not checked the backyard square foot garden.  Deck plants appear healthy even though their soil has dried.  Maybe try staking the four tomato plants later.

Summer marks fewer appointments.  One doctor's visit later in the week.  Maybe see if the Blood Bank will have me back as a donor.  No OLLI classes.  No looming deadlines.  In that sense, the living is easy though better not to be too easy.

Post-Covid travel has begun to open.  I went to the Delaware beaches twice amid prudent restrictions, plan to do this again in the more open environment.  Maybe go to Lancaster after my medical appointment, as I've not done that at all during the pandemic.

Significant blocks of unstructured times also create opportunities.  My traditional six month cycle reaches its conclusion soon, more successful than most given the pandemic's limitations, but still with enough loose ends to require some element of self-directed effort within some specific self-assigned work times.  Still another kg to go on my weight goal.  Still sitting on three completed essays of good quality but lackadaisical about seeking a publication for submission.  Not exactly summertime activities but still on the not yet completed list.  Too soon to harvest my gardens.  I've had a little too much medical care of late.  Complete this appointment and steer clear of providers the remainder of the summer.  And shul reopens but for now without me.  

Since my initiatives get created in June to transition in July, summer for me is never really hazy or lazy.  I have made peace with what I did, didn't do, or could have done, thought about what I'd like to continue or do instead, and come the hottest days with the least fixed structure, immerse myself onward.