This has been the summer that wasn’t.
Beyond the unusually cold, wet weather, I started a new job in June, which has me running hard while adjusting to a long commute. Gone are the work-at-home days that allowed me to eat breakfast and sip coffee at my patio table, along with quick mid-day bike rides or early evening 15 milers. Most of my biking miles this summer have been 1.5 miles at a time, fighting traffic on a Divvy bike on my way to my new office. I never even made it to one of Elgin’s Wing Park concerts.
But I seemed to make up for it this weekend. While I’ve had days and bits and pieces of summer bliss – a perfect day walking the Chicago lakefront, an evening watching the Perseid Meteor Shower at Cantigny – this three-day stretch scratched my summer itch and left me rested, fulfilled, and happy.
A long hike, over the (Fox) river and through (Duerr) woods, walking hand-in-hand through fields of late-summer wildflowers and ragweed, swatting away mosquitos as dusk started to close in.
Hammock time, lots of glorious hammock time, swaying under the mulberry tree as I finished my book, the neighbors’ grilling aromas wafting by.
Minor league baseball with family and the Kane County Cougars, capped off by fireworks in the sticky night air.
A morning rain shower, just enough to gently soak and green the grass while replenishing the humid air.
Grilled food, lots of it: bratwurst at the new Plank Road Tap Room, a classic ballpark dog at the game, and chicken and farm-fresh zucchini and summer squash on my own driveway.
A very windy bike ride, 7 leisurely miles through prairie and cornfield, with fresh manure off in the distance and summer sweat down my back.
Sleeping in for three consecutive days, no alarm necessary, waking up refreshed yet lazy (“I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow…“), with time for slow breakfast of coffee, eggs, bacon, and newspaper, with the radio gently droning in the background.
I may have “missed out” on summer in my traditional sense, but this weekend was simply glorious.
Adventures of the Former Elginista 