Favorite Times #2

Another one of my favorite times takes place during the summer. I remember this time from when I was a kid, but I still get it once in a while, even now. (Although, now it only happens at the end of those uncharacteristically hot San Francisco summer days).

I love that time in the evening, when I've spent the whole day outside in the sun, and now it's time to head home. I smell like sunscreen and dust. My hair is tangled and full of the dirt of the day, and it's dried all clumpy from whatever water I was playing in earlier. My skin feels all gritty and warm, and I glow all the way home and into my shower (when I was a kid, it was the bath).

Once I'm clean and in my jammies, I put together a snack and sit down to watch a little TV before bed. No matter what I'm watching, I can always hear the Minnie Pearl of my childhood... Howdyyyyyyy!. My mom was a huge Hee-Haw fan back in those days.

After a half hour or so of that, I brush my teeth and climb between my newly washed sheets. I can smell the fresh summer night air that's coming in my open window mix with the super clean smell of fabric softener. I read until my eyes will no longer stay open... knowing that it's summer and there is no school tomorrow.

Ah... a peaceful cocoon of childhood safety is woven around me, and I drift contentedly off to sleep.
(This complete bliss is only slightly tainted by the knowledge that I'm not longer a kid, and I still have to get up for work.)