The Word.

Mums. In June.


I think the cool nights — you may remember, friends and fans of weather, that we had a few cool nights in between bouts of the kind of weather we're having today — I think the cool nights confused them. These are Harris Teeter mums from two falls ago. They will not be killed by rain, snow, sleet, hail, or drought. They're in with the impatiens. It's an odd, fall color out there in all that pink.

The heat's back. It's like a bill come due. There are a couple of thunderstorms out there, but they're mainly well west and nothing to get overly excited about. I'm not saying it definitely won't rain. I just think there's probably time to finish painting the back door this afternoon. There's maybe even time to start painting it.

It's almost July. There is I think a mouse living in our water heater closet. There is I know one living in the wall behind the vanity in the shed. The mums are blooming. The evenings are lasting well past nine o'clock. My elbows feel funny. The bathroom reno is threatening completion. There are green tomatoes on the vine. It's about time for somebody to make a list or something, start checking things off, drawing lines through completed tasks.