This is the first summer in a while that I can remember having a real summer. That is, doing a bunch of outdoorsy stuff with friends and neighbors and feeling busy in that “Wow there is a lot of fun stuff to do” way and spending very little time inside under the fluorescent lights.

Actually this morning I am inside because I got a sunburn picking blueberries. This is such a better thing to complain about than impending word counts or deadlines or what have you. I am still in the glow of no longer having a book to write, as much as I enjoyed the writing of it. I was in Florida last week and it was 102, so I can pretty much handle whatever Vermont can dish out. Other highlights from the last week include a beach meetup, seeing my sister’s boyfriend play baseball at Fenway Park (a totally different place when there are only 200 people there), the aforementioned blueberry picking, some random hiking and seeing a lightning storm from the plane at sufficient distance that it was cool not scary. My new-to-me car has been road tested and I have three pounds of blueberries in the fridge.

I also had food from these countries: Peru, Cuba, France, Finland, Thailand, Greece and the good old US of A. Yes this was not in Vermont. The plan for the next week, besides a quickie trip to Indianapolis, is exercise. Last week I actually ran a mile outside, for the first time ever. My time was something in the 13 minute range which means room for a ton of improvement.

I went to four different libraries when I was in Florida. This one was just a few blocks from the Barefoot Mailman motel which was my quirky hangout in Lantana Florida. Nothing fancy but cool and quiet and a good place for resting before heading back out into the summer activities.