A Scorcher of a Summer...

Wow... It's been a hot and dry summer so far. It was in the low 90s today and it's only rained good about once in the last month. We're expecting severe storms tomorrow night, but I'm not all that optimistic given our track record this month. The bright side of the heat wave is I don't have to mow the lawn hardly at all. I only mowed the back once in the last three weeks and it's been upwards of a month now since I mowed the front yard. Of course the grass is not the beautiful green it was this spring. I still enjoy it, though, as it doesn't feel all that muggy outside and the dryness with the short grass has combined for a relatively "mosquito-free" neighborhood. As for recreation in this sunny weather, we took the opportunity on the invitation of one of Aaron's buddy's from his church youth group to head down to the beach near the confluence of the Thief and Red Rivers. It's the exact same beach I remembered playing on and in the water as a kid a quarter century ago and I swear the buoys that outline the swimming area in the river are the exact same ones from the 1970s. I waded in the water while the boys went all the way in. The river was about the temperature of a bathtub last Friday and we probably spent an hour in there throwing a Nerf football around and stuff. They both enjoyed the novelty of swimming in a river for the first time and it was a much needed break from the status quo.

The boys' baseball season continues and Aaron's team has struggled a bit as they have faced a few teams that are developing at a faster pace than his team has. Couple that with 10 days off and they were a little rusty in Monday's game. Aaron managed to score a homerun, though, after a teammate brought him home with a base hit. He was grinning from ear to ear. He did get nailed in the hand from one of the coaches pitches, hitting his thumb, I think. Unfortunately they don't get to take a base when hit, so he took a break to shake off the sting in the dugout, then returned minutes later to get a base hit. I think he's learning to push through adversity and pain thanks to America's favorite pastime, which should serve him well in the future. Daniel is also doing well with his T-ball and had another game on Tuesday. Tomorrow they're both going on a bus from the Ralph Engelstad Arena to Fargo to watch the Fargo Red Hawks take on the Calgary Vipers in a semi-pro baseball game. They'll be gone until around 5:30, so Dad gets to sit in the dentist chair for a few hours while they're gone. They've been looking forward to the trip for some time.

We rode bike around town tonight and decided to take a detour over to the fairgrounds and see what's up at the Pennington County Fair. I bumped into the Drevlows including Sandy and it looks like tomorrow we'll be entering our bunny and guinea pig into the animal displays. Just gotta trim Funny Bunny's nails first... I also bumped into one of my former teachers from Franklin Middle School, Walter Redinger, whom i haven't seen in a quarter century or more. He looked just the way I remembered him and is every bit as nice as I recalled. He has four grandchildren now, one of which is Daniel's age. It was nice seeing him again. We ended up riding back at 10:00 tonight and we'll be heading back tomorrow night for the bunny thing and some more rides. They both really got a kick out of the rides they went on tonight, even more than last year.

When it was time to head to bed, Daniel asked me (as usual) to try to catch him as he ran up the stairs to bed and I caught him just before he reached the first stair landing and as he goes down for the tickle, he looks up at Aaron just ahead of him on the landing and screams up to him, "Save yourself!!!" What a zag nut...

Well, time to get some shuteye over here. Hope those reading this are having a little cooler week than we are this week. :o)