You’ve heard the Nat King Cole song, The Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer? Well, in my case, he had two out of three right: hazy and oh, so crazy!
While our weather has become a little more reasonable temperature-wise, we’ve sweltered through a couple of impressive heat waves, whether they ranked so officially or not. The high heat and humidity brought air quality advisories and bathed the area in a definite haze for several days. I would have loved to turn lazy during that time (or now), but apparently someone forgot to advise my imaginary assistant that I was due for some time off. Almost all of what’s going on is good (my sister is visiting from B.C. for the first time in six years, the house is cleaner than it’s been for a long time, and my vegetable garden is coming along splendidly), but you know how the universe likes to throw a wrench into the works now and again?
Yeah, that.
My youngest daughter got a last-minute position at a 6-week summer camp for air cadets this year…in French. While she is conversationally bilingual, she also has Asperger’s Syndrome. The complete language immersion–along with all the other changes camp brings–has overwhelmed her. We’ve struggled for more than a week with the decision of whether to bring her home or see if she can tough it out, but things have continued to decline and we’ve decided on the former. We’re working out the details of how that’s going to happen, but more than likely my sister will be getting an unanticipated albeit scenic road trip to northern Quebec (the camp is in the Saguenay region) when we drive up to fetch daughter. And we’ll be forking out for an unanticipated hotel stay.
Sigh.
Once daughter is home, however, things should settle down. My sister is here for two weeks and so we have several day-trips planned: Kingston and Fort Henry, Upper Canada Village, the Blue Gypsy winery, Mackenzie King Estate in Gatineau Park, and maybe a visit to the beautiful, not-too-distant village of Perth if we can fit it in. And sister loves to walk, so I’m getting in plenty of short hikes (with and without puppy) as well. We explored the Mud Lake bird sanctuary here in Ottawa yesterday, and today we’re thinking of checking out the Stony Swamp Conservation Area…
…after I pick up one of my other daughters, who has developed a sinus infection, and bring her home because she has to leave her apartment for the landlord to show a prospective tenant….
…this is the same daughter who may need to move home for a few weeks with her boyfriend because they’ve been unable to find a new apartment and they’re about to leave for two weeks in Newfoundland and have to put their search on hold…
Sigh.
So there you have it: hazy and crazy. While this certainly isn’t the most hectic summer I’ve ever had, neither is quite as relaxed as I’d envisioned. Still, as I said, most of it is good. Really. I’m convinced.
But just in case, if you’re in my vicinity, you might want to stand clear of randomly flying wrenches! 😉
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