The unofficial start of summer

The pool opened today.  So naturally, my daughter woke up at 6:22 a.m., asking to take a shower.  I told her to go back to bed, that it was too early and she returned at 6:45 a.m. with a follow-up request.

So, she showered for . . . a long time.  I slept while she showered and sang.  My husband got up at some point and went to the office.  My son came through my room on his way to the shower and took a very long shower himself.

Meanwhile, I rebuffed every attempt my daughter made to engage me in conversation.  Mainly, she wanted to know if it was time to go to the pool yet.  She asked this in twenty minute intervals.

The the phone rang and it was the guy from India (Dell) and he wanted to guide me through installing my hard drive and I said no thank you, can you please email me the instructions?  And he said, “Well, you just remove two screws, slide out the old hard drive and slide in the new.”  I can do that, having done that same open-heart surgery repeatedly last Thursday.

My husband telephoned.

At which point (9:30 a.m.), I gave up the attempt to sleep and muddled from bed and headed immediately downstairs to switch the laundry from dryer to basket, washer to dryer and dirty clothes head to washer.

My husband returned home to mock my appearance and I can’t blame him.  You’d mock, too.

We had a change in plans and he took our son to baseball practice.  My daughter and I went to Goodwill to browse the stuffed animal bins and emerged $9.73 poorer with two bags full of stuff that I will threaten to throw away by Monday.  It’s the browsing and shopping that makes her so happy.  Plus it distracted her from the vast hours until it was time for the pool.

After baseball practice, I took a van full of kids to the pool, leaving my husband home to study.  My daughter (in her aqua blue swimsuit dotted with cherries) hesitated for a bit and then literally plunged into the pool, dunking her head and kicking her legs.  She requested permission to jump from the diving board with her life jacket on (she hasn’t passed the swim test yet, but I think she probably could).  Permission was granted, so she spent the rest of her time standing in line, leaping, swimming to the side and repeating the process.

I started reading Atonement.

Then my husband arrived and we switched off.  I didn’t have enough time to really do much, so I went to the fruit market and stopped by the grocery store for milk.  I am unimaginative.

Oh, and I know it’s dull, but the weather was glorious.  The meteorologists told us it would be 66 degrees and partly sunny, but it was 75 degrees with clouds only on the far reaches of the horizons, clinging to the mountains like well-lathered sheep.  Truly, a perfect opening day for the pool.

And now, for the next ninety days, I will have to answer this question:  “Can we go to the pool?” which is always followed up with this question as we leave the pool, “Can we get some ice cream at McDonald’s?”   Ah, summertime.