August reminds me of childhood

my first childhood, that is... I've have many and have no intention of stopping for life is all about childhood and pity the fools who don't know that...

it was August in the city when the ground was too hot to walk on barefoot and the long lazy days never seemed to end... the sweltering sunshine seemed to slow everything down... the heat made the air feel thicker, so thick, you could see it rise in waves from the blistering streets...

and I would play baseball and stickball and punchball and paddleball and basketball and football with friends, though the latter two were usually reserved for the fall and cooler weather, especially football because I loved to dive to catch the ball and wearing jeans and a sweatshirt protected the skin better, allowing for much more reckless diving catches... baseball was always better in the spring for the same reasons...

and some afternoons were so silent it felt like there was nobody else on the planet...

and the evenings, hot, sticky, as the sun went down the ground swelled with the day's heat and kept the air from cooling as if we were in a huge oven... twilight would bring out imaginations and the elevator that would take us anywhere, anytime... that was one of my favorites... it may have looked like an ordinary under-the-stairs shed to most people, but to me and a few of my friends it was the elevator (maybe magic, but what's magic when it real to us?)... I was lucky to have friends who would come along... we'd step in and tell it where we wanted to go (and when) and the door would open and there we were...

and then, as we explored the adventure we created, as if a blanket was pulled over the sky, night would welcome us with it's sweet darkness... the stars, for what the city air would let us see of them, seemed to blur as if their crystal light could not shine through the dense night air...

everyone went home and I wandered, alone again, into the night...

after midnight, when when little cooling would come in the form of a light breeze, I would head out for my daily run around the nightborhood... fifteen miles, sometimes more, past friends houses as they slept, as the night wrapped me in silence leaving only the drumbeat of my footfalls to keep rhythm with the night's music...

August days, August nights, August in the city, remembering the Augusts of my first two decades on this planet... warm mmemories, in so many ways...

did I mention my tooth is all better?...

yeah, I lucked out... called the dentist recommended by one of my co-workers and he saw me immediately and fixed the tooth and all is well and the insurance covered it... next week I have an appointment for a full check-up... so I ate a lot of chocolate and nuts this week... yum...

and the new data specialist started today, so I started her training and officially became Candor, PI... for a while I'll be doing some of both jobs somehow as I train (I'll have to give her a blog name, aye?... I'll think about it), umm, her...

I've starting running at night instead of going to the gym lately... so far, three nights... I don't know the distance, I'll have to drive it to find out, but I am sort of keeping track of time (just glancing at the clock, not using a chronograph... first time, two laps, 14 and 16 minutes, respectively... second time, 3 laps, 14, 14, and 16 minutes, respectively... third time, four laps, 13, 13, 16, and 17 minutes, respectively... hopefully the distance is more than a mile, but running is a whole lot different from the eliptical machine so I don't expect to maintain the same pace right off the bat... figures I'd start running outdoors at the hottest time of the year, aye?...

that reminds me of childhood too...

it's wonderful to have warm, fuzzy, endearing memories... summer wakes some of the dearest... many of my best memories are of solitary, peaceful times... but memories are of sharing times with friends... those are the best memories... I'd really love to make some more of them...