It started off with my trip to Dallas to see my Brother, Sister (-in-law), and Niece for a weekend full of fun and family. We went to the park, to Downtown McKinney, to Downtown Dallas, and to a few other various places around town.

Once I got home, I adopted Brutus.

I took Red for many, many excursions around town.

I went camping in June, July, and September, each time at a different Illinois State Park.

I celebrated the birthdays of a few friends.

I went to Chicago a couple of times and Indianapolis once.

I helped J & J repaint the inside of their home.

I started rehearsing with the Philharmonic Chorale again.

Somewhere in there I found time to relandscape an area at the front of my house, but seriously only mowed the lawn about 6 times over the 3 months of summer.

This was probably one of the most exciting summers I’ve had in a REALLY long time, and I loved it. It was fun to be able to see so many friends and relatives in various places. However, I’m also glad that the majority of my travels have come to an end for a few months. There are a few day- and weeekend-trips planned, but nothing too major.

Along with being in town a bit more, I think I might have a bit more time to blog. I am going to try to blog once a week for a while, and then hopefully I can get back to a higher frequency.

People who know me fairly well know that I’m much different from the norm. In fact, as I was thinking about this today, I didn’t really experience the normal “coming of age” events like the stereotypical person does. Things like “the first kiss”, “the first true love”, “moving away for college”, “graduating college”, etc. have been different for me than how it seems to go for everyone else.

I really think that I became an adult when I bought my house. It was my first real, substantial demonstration of my independance as a person, although my parents might say that I’ve demonstrated this for much longer. I mean, really, until that point I had been living with my parents, and although I’ve been fairly-well employed for many years, I didn’t really have any substantial responsibilities. 

I bought my house in December of last year, so maintenance around the home was minimal, especially outdoors. So the first few months kept me in the dark with regards to how much work really goes into maintaining this place.

As the seasons changed, my lawn started to grow. And by “grow,” I mean that it was a complete jungle before I realized that it was even Spring. I realized that I couldn’t procrastinate any further, and I went and bought a lawn mower to tame the growth. When I bought the mower, or Little Red, as I call her, I made the comment that I felt like I had become an old man. I still stand by that comment – when you have officially purchased your first lawn mower for your own home, you are officially an old man.

This put me in the dumps. I’m not very old, age wise, but all of a sudden I was an old man. Even so, the lawn continued to grow back every week, and Little Red and I continued to address the issue. Over the Spring and Summer, we became quite close. But after mowing the lawn yesterday, Little Red and I have an even stronger bond.

Somehow, even in my sweaty discomfort, I grew to appreciate the clean, fresh look of a newly cut lawn. I didn’t really notice this, though, until yesterday. I always made sure that my rows were nice and straight, with a special emphasis on ensuring that I left no stray blades behind. But I didn’t really feel “good” about the whole process. Not that I felt bad, either. It was more of a neutral thing.

When I finished yesterday, I felt entirely satisfied, as if I had completed some large masterpiece for all to see. While the neighbors all have leaves strewn across their yards, mine is bright and green. While other yards have tall, uneven grass, mine is nicely cut into neat rows. I don’t have anything against the other yards, but I actually feel happier now than I did the day before, as if mowing the lawn had some euphoric side-effect not yet known to mankind.

Now, when I think about this, I’m not sure if this is completely a good thing. To an extent I’m glad that I’ve ended the mowing season on a high note, but what if it doesn’t carry through to next Spring? Then what? Or, what if this is the plateau that I am stuck at forever? Or, what if I get addicted to the euphoric feeling and become OCD about mowing the lawn?

Hmm…

I had a run-in with a moth yesterday…

I went to bed at a decent hour, and fell asleep rather quickly. Nothing out of the ordinary here.

At 3:15am, though, things changed. I woke up because I felt something on my ear. I wasn’t entirely awake, but as I reached up to swat “whatever it was” away, I conciously thought to myself: “It’s just a moth. No big deal.” I then fell back asleep just as quickly as I had awoken.

But that’s not where it ended. You see, just as I was falling back to sleep, I felt something crawling on my arm. I reached over to, well, solve the problem but there wasn’t anything there. I was almost asleep again, and I felt the same crawling-type feeling, but this time it was on my stomach. I reached to quell the itch, but there was, again, nothing there. In your own mind, imagine this happening ten or fifteen more times over the next fifteen minutes, and you can imagine why I was starting to think that I was on crack or something. I figured that I was having a paranoia-episode at 3 in the friggin’ morning.

Just as I convinced myself that it was all in my head, it happened again. But THIS time, I redeemed myself from having to check into the psych ward. I felt “it” crawling on my chest, and quickly capturing the beast before it could evade me once more.

As soon as I caught it, I jumped out of my bed out of sheer excitement. I don’t actually remember getting out of the bed – I only remember being completely supine at one moment, and then being completely upright the next while I chuckled evily at the demise of Mr. Moth.

Now, for any readers that are a bit, ummm, shy when it comes to bugs, I did confirm that it was a moth that was tormenting me. I found the corpse on the floor of my bedroom once the sun rose, and it was totally a moth. One down, many more to go.

I mowed the lawn today, and wasn’t to excited about it. But – I did get it done before it looked too terribly bad, and I got it done before the rains came, so I feel okay about it overall.

(image source)