Yes, it is mid-August, and I have lived
other places where it gets hot in the summer, but when the ‘feels like’
temperature around here climbs above one-fifteen; it’s time to stay indoors for
a while!
The good news is that I did that for most
of the afternoon. The bad is that I also
worked the dinner-to-close shift at the Inn tonight too; and it was probably
hotter in the kitchen for most of that time.
I’ve gotten ahead of the news of the day;
so let’s back up to this morning and go from there.
It was still hot and humid out at dawn, but
we were outside for Tai Chi by the river anyway; and had fun with that – even though
I didn’t have my favorite exercise buddy with me. After that, it was time for a quick breakfast
that was all about spending a last bit of time with Violet and Dillon before
they headed for Woodvale; and then I helped them with getting Violet’s car
loaded so that they could be on the road in time to hopefully make it to
Woodvale by noon and lunch plans they had with Dawn and some friends. The house felt emptier after that even though
they’d have been at work all day anyway if they hadn’t left; which was why I
felt motivated to get a head start on my weekend chores again today after the
morning chores in the house were finished except for the ongoing loads of
laundry. I only managed to mow the lawn
before the heat had me changing my mind about doing chores all morning just to
keep busy and not thinking too much about things that can’t be – like spending
more time with Violet and Dillon.
I worked on my family business jobs
instead; did that using a time phase; and had everything done by the time Mom and
I stopped to make lunch for six that included the twins, Naomi, and Aiden. It was time to play for a while after that,
and Michael joined us for some of that fun while he was on his afternoon break,
but we spent most of the afternoon indoors except for one swim in the
river. The water was nice-enough, but
the air was hot-enough to take your breath away; so we didn’t play in the water
for very long before going back inside to have an ice cream sundae afternoon
snack break. Knowing what it was going
to be like in the kitchen at the Inn, I grabbed a shower and got changed before
meeting up with Michael at his house and going on to work from there; and then
we get into what was definitely the hottest part of my day.
Too bad for Michael and I that it was the
weather-related kind of hot! ;^)
I won’t put you to sleep with the drudgery
that was our work shift tonight. It was
too hot; and too busy because the heat drove the camper-customers into town and
the comparative cool of the dining rooms at the Inn. Fortunately, we still have most of the college
teens around, and many of them were working a last shift tonight before heading
away to school, so we weren’t short-staffed; but we will be this weekend if the
trend continues – especially when we lose our nearly-fully-trained second chef
on Saturday morning. That’s something to
deal with starting on the weekend, though, so let’s move along.
While we pretty much had a full house
tonight, the hot weather did at least mean that our customers mostly came into
town early instead of later; so the main rush was over with by seven o’clock. We had the Inn cleaned up and closed by a bit
before ten o’clock; and then I went home with Michael and his family so that we
could have a visit with Jake and Stephanie.
We won’t be able to do that tomorrow night because they’ll be hanging
out with her family instead, and then they’ll be gone to the airport early on
Saturday morning; so this was my last chance to hang out with them when we aren’t
busy working our tails off at the Inn. That
visit was still too-short because Jacob and Michael need to be up early for the
breakfast shift again; which is why I came home at a bit after eleven o’clock.
Everyone else in the house was in bed by
then, and while not everyone was sleeping; Mom and Dad did not need me stopping
in for a visit on my way up to my room.
No added details needed there, so if you must use your imagination right
now; don’t ever tell me if I’m still around whenever you are reading this in my
future!
I had a quick shower; got ready for bed;
and only needed to do the usual bedtime computer and email checks before getting
to this report. Once again it feels as
though the third floor is emptier without Violet and Dillon here tonight, and
it is just as insubstantial as my feelings this morning; since they wouldn’t
likely have been home yet tonight if they had still been here – they’d have
likely been out with Jake, Stephanie, and some other friends instead.
By the way – Jacob and Michael may have
needed to get to sleep when I left, but Jake and Stephanie did go out to the
pub for awhile to meet up with Josiah, Christina, and a few others. I don’t mention that kind of thing much,
since it doesn’t affect me very often at all; but my favorite collegians do
have a life outside of our families and the Inn. Maybe Michael and I will be able to do stuff
like that with them in another seven years or so once we’re finished college,
but then we’ll have our own adult lives by then too, and their lives could be
very different by then too; so we’ll have to see how that goes for all of us.
Since I’m not worrying about the work and
problems at the Inn this weekend tonight, I should probably leave off thinking
too much about the future seven years from now too. In fact, I’m ready to stop thinking about
anything and just get some sleep. We
have three very busy days coming up, and while extra shifts at the Inn are
going to be part of that for me; we also have some ball games and what I hope
will be some chances to say goodbye to some of my college friends before they
leave town. I’ll keep you posted on all
of that, but that’s all for now; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
