Tag: summer

Oh NO! Again?

~ JodiLea ~ Leave a comment

I knew it was too good to last. As soon as the weather turned slightly warm, the utility company sent trucks to invade our neighborhood. These trucks had large equipment and assorted other machines that I did not recognize. Five (possibly more) crews of road workers have claimed the streets that I use to get to town.

The normal orange signs are posted:

This sign is new. They are posted on every street, multiple times. There is usually a crew for trenching, and one of them serves as a flagman. They are very casual about the major disturbance they are causing.

I was at a stop sign, wanting to turn left. My signal was on, so he would know what I wanted to do. After a few minutes, he waved me on, indicating I could turn left.

As I turned the corner and saw the road’s condition, I looked over at the guy. He nodded his head yes and waved me on impatiently. I just knew that this was a mistake!
Only half the road was available due to the massive machines lined up on the left. The road that I was supposed to drive on had a trench, and to the right of that was a pile of asphalt. My little Subaru was going to get dirty and possibly stuck.

I know that I had a wincing look on my face. I had to negotiate the road by driving split. The left tires rode inside the trench. The right tires flattened piles of asphalt. My car jumped and bucked like a rodeo bull. Had I not been driving, I would have been car-sick. Why people like off-roading, I will never understand.

All this roadwork is giving me flashbacks of last summer. Plenty of trenches were dug, but they blocked the road or put metal plates over them. Those trenches were 4 feet deep. And yet, no signs warned us back then.

Last week, I was a prisoner in my own home. I woke up to the sound of asphalt being scraped up and spewed into the back of a truck. This is not the sound one expects to hear when living in the forest.

The view is taken from my front porch. The noise is muted for the reader’s sake.

The following afternoon, another crew showed up and paved over the entire cul-de-sac and partway down the road. When we built our house and moved in the Summer of 2012, the road was falling apart. Fourteen years later, it is finally smooth and new.

I am expecting an Earthquake or a tornado any day now.

TTFN

Yikes! It’s Almost July

~ JodiLea

And that means Camp Grandma (Camp Gma) is looming, and Grandma ain’t ready. This is no emergency or panic situation. The Camp is organized and planned, so the kids will have fun. No worries there.

The issue is I am behind with the background things that need to be done so things run smoothly and Grandma can have fun too. I would have everything done by now if I was feeling better and things were normal again. I have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow because my lingering croup or asthma needs to be treated. In the wise words of Winnie the Pooh – “Oh, bother!”

I may not be posting here much in July. But if you miss me, you can check out https://campgma.com and find out what’s going on at camp.

TTFN

STOP! What’s Your Last Word?

~ JodiLea

When I was a kid, pre-high school, one of the most memorable summers ever experienced was when my cousin flew to visit our grandma & pa who lived in California. My cuz, Mags, and I had been pen-pals for a few years and I could not wait to meet her in person.  It was BFF’s at first sight.

We had so many things in common it was eerie. One of our ‘things’ was writing.  Both of us had spiral notebooks full of poems, short stories, episodes of our favorite TV shows.  I was working on a new episode for “Emergency!” and I think Mags was working on one for Alias Smith & Jones.  It was a Western romance – that I remember. 

We were busy scribbling and all of a sudden, Mags yells “STOP!”

“What?!  What’s wrong?”

“What’s your last word?”

I looked at my notebook and the last word written before her scream is “thready”

“Hmm.”  she contemplates.

“What is yours?”  two can play at this game.

“muscles,” she said.

“Ohh,” I say.  “You win.”

We must have laughed for 20 minutes.  Then we refilled our sodas, grabbed a snack, and went back to work.  When I noticed Mags hitting a roll with her focused scribbling, I hollered out, “What’s your last sentence?”  Only one word at a time was not giving me any clue about where her story was going.  Yes, even back then, I was impatient.

I wished that I could remember that episode!  I knew it had to be juvenile and corny – it was corny back then.  Curious, I dug into my file drawer that had research, old drafts, and false starts.  And there it was. My old blue THEMEBOOK 100.   Five short stories were listed on the second-page table of contents.  (Table of Contents!?)   I laughed when I found “Code I LUV U”.  That had to be the infamous Emergency! episode.  42 pages (front and back) of pure corn.  Beyond corny, corn.  Copywrite 1972.  The summer between junior high and high school.   I was 14. 

The last sentence?  My character was singing, “Everything’s all right, yes, everything’s fine.”

I’m still smiling about that.  

I hope that Mags can find hers.

 

♥  TTFN  ♥

.