Opinion

Dear Julia—

As it goes sometimes, all of the best intentions can fall to the wayside when things get busy. I had been accumulating the necessary items needed to work on a project to accompany my photo exhibit that will go up this fall in the Marshall Area Fine Arts Council gallery, and finally had all of the necessary supplies to work on botanical printing of native plant species found in the public lands that are featured in the photo exhibit. Alas, I had big plans for the weekend to get out in nature and collect some of the plants to work on the project, but, as a volunteer also, I ended up being the one to not have out of town plans for the weekend - thus, the entire weekend was spent volunteering.

Germany is efficient. France is flirtatious. Canada apologizes for being in your way, even though I don’t know anyone on their way to the North Pole other than Will Steiger. But America? If you want to understand America, skip the textbooks or history lessons. At a distance, just observe the month of July.

He began with frogging. Then jigging. By noon, he said, he’d be hula popping. I kept nodding, as though these were natural things for a man to say while I was drinking my first cup of coffee. Or ever.

Now that my oldest child has resumed his military work after his couple of month leave in Minnesota, and has returned to New York, that of course, means my grandmother has resumed her cookie baking mission.

On Saturday evening, I was finally able to enjoy a night off from all various jobs duties and so we decided that it would be lovely to go for a dip in the cold spring, enjoy a dinner out of town, and take in a movie. The heat and humidity made the dip in the cold spring lovely, and having the chance to dine out somewhere we don’t get to very often was also lovely.

Generally, I go ‘round without a hat. A hat squeezes the head, itches the scalp. Plus, I like my hair. But we live in interesting, challenging, new times. We must rise to the occasion. Sometimes, to meet the moment, a man needs a hat.

So far this summer, the few fishing adventures I’ve managed to be able to fit into the schedule have involved mostly catching small, not very strong fish. That was not the case last week, attempting to fish near the dam in Granite Falls. Instead, I fought multiple very large fish, with not a heavy enough line to do so.

The energy in the auditorium was already electric. Every single act in the middle school variety show received thunderous applause, a standing ovation. It was the last day of school and the audience was determined to love everything. Then the next act brought out a T-shirt gun.