The Dog Days Of Summer

Dog Days Of Summer

Well that sure sounds like a negative-nancy blog title.  Or not I suppose.  It could purely mean something along the lines of “busy” summer…what does that saying mean?  Ok, my faithful Siri helped me out with this and according to mousebreath.com (huh?!) here’s the scoop on the poop: The term actually dates back to the olden days and has to do with the star Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens, which is also known as the Dog Star.  Sirius was nicknamed the “Dog Star” by the ancient Egyptians in honor of a god named Osirus, whose head resembled that of a dog (arf!).  For around 20 days beginning in late July, Sirius actually rises and sets with the sun, so the Egyptians and Romans put 2 & 2 together and concluded that Sirius added its heat to the sun and made things extra hot…hence, the name “dog days of summer.”  Interesting, but I digress.

As I sit at my cozy red, faux leather restaurant booth we have in a corner under our back porch, at ground level, with a round table in the middle good for morning coffee, wine & laptops, good books and “watching” kids jumping on the trampoline or Friday night beers & nachos with good friends, I sit this lovely summer evening in San Francisco ignoring the call to the kitchen to make dinner.  I do that sometimes and I have a husband who understands, or at least rolls with, that decision.  I’ve had a very busy day and was feeling a bit agro-annie approaching dinner prep time.  Why agro?  Nothing particularly aggravating happened, if you don’t count the huge undertaking of sorting through what felt like mountains of toys to divide between 4 piles: keep, send to Salvation Army, take to our local recycled clothes/toy store where I get credit if they take my “junk” or the trash can which ended up sadly sizable.  Oh and all the while yelling at the kids that it wasn’t play time but clean up time and if they didn’t help I would just throw the whole lot out.  After a post office stop around the corner from the house there was a Safeway run, again around the corner, where I forgot the number 1 reason I went in (milk) so had to go back and wait in line again (%*!@%!!)  Then we did a Costco trip late in the afternoon…I really dislike that place!  For all of the above errands Teagan insisted on bringing her mini plastic shopping cart.  Me: “Teagan keep up!  Teagan watch where you are going!  Sorry my daughter ran into you ma’am.”  Oh and I witnessed a potential love connection on the street corner between a jogger and a cat caller (the jogger being the male & the cat caller being the woman!!) which was an interesting exchange and made me wonder if in a few years they’d be getting married or more likely would in 1 week one or the other be saying “well I won’t be going on another date with him/her!”  Thank god I’m married and not out in that world anymore!!  I actually did managed to squeeze in 35 minutes of yoga ME time today though.  But tonight the weather is being true to the month, unlike our usual arctic summers, and we have a nice “warm” summer evening to enjoy outside.  The wind is picking up a bit as it sadly does around this time but we are soaking up what we can. 

Wait, what was I going to say before describing every minute detail about the scene?

Oh yeah, summer.  Tyler goes back Monday and as predicted I can’t believe this summer vacation is over and he’s starting 1^st grade.  The time really is starting to hit warp speed and is very scary.  We had a great summer though; a wonderful 10 day trip through the U.K. and Ireland; fun days full of laughter at “amusement parks”; free days to jump on the trampoline for hours at a time; loads of camping…and that’s just the cream of the crop.  I worry if I did enough for them, made it fun & memorable enough, but that’s just me being hard on myself as per usual.  However, just because “summer” is over doesn’t mean life is over or fun is over.  Now we have fun fall holidays to look forward to, new friends at school, getting involved in Cub Scouts, etc.! 

AND I look forward to getting back on a structured schedule, which I just don’t do well off of.  The summer meant trips, holidays, birthday parties, camping…all of which equated to crap eating, cake, beer, s’mores, etc. etc. and 8lbs!!!  Eeeeek!  I haven’t been exercising and I let the healthy eating go too.  I’m rapidly forgiving myself for it because #1 C’mon, its summer and it’s ok to let loose! #2 What good does beating myself up for it do anyway since what’s done is done! #3 I will take it off.  In fact today I just put together a spreadsheet (yes, I’m that kind) for my weight loss and exercise goals, figured out all the numbers and am excited to get started!  Ok, I’m not really excited at the likely option of getting up at 6 again to run or do yoga, but hey, beauty is pain!  I can do it after I drop Tyler at school if need be.  I used to run in Golden Gate Park with Teagan after dropping Tyler off.  I’m not comfortable at my current weight…and yes I do have a slightly warped view of my body, but don’t we all to some degree?  Maybe not all of us.  I know it’s a terrible problem with endless possible industries or childhood issues to blame and bottom line comes down to core issues of self love, but hey, I’m working on it!  All things are impermanent which leads to exciting possibilities! 

Let the next phase begin!

Tiffany xo