Did I use a similar picture to this just a few weeks ago? Yes, but this time I planted grass!

(Sunday Paper, Year V, Issue 20)

Everything is so unusual these days that it’s hard to tell what’s usual.

What I’m mainly thinking of is the weather.

There were certainly some evenings in early-to-mid May these past few years that I sat in some frigid temperatures watching the girls play softball.

I remember that feeling…yet this past week or so has felt a little too cold for May.

Maybe that’s just because I’m outside at different times because everything is so thrown off these days.

But this weekend was a little more what I expect out of May.

And it got me thinking about the summer.

Actually, a couple of things have me thinking about the summer.

First of all, I read something on Friday morning by my writer friend Gina, who you may remember wrote a Sunday Paper guest post back in September 2018. She does a weekly post on Fridays called ‘Five on Friday’, and Friday’s was excellent. I liked it a lot for a few reasons. First of all, it’s just a great idea, considering the fact that we’re all going to be spending our summers in a similar way and it’s a great idea we can all apply. Secondly, I’ve been doing these Facebook Live readings during the week, and Friday morning’s was one from back in 2016 called ‘Sucich Summer Camp’, about my summer activities with the girls. So that was weird timing, considering I had just read her post before I read that one.

Lastly, she talks about having the time to enjoy the yard….which brings me to another point I want to make about my summer:

I’ve been doing so much yard work already this spring, and I’m at a good checkpoint: I cleared a bunch of stuff I had been wanting to clear and was able to put down some grass seed this week. I’m watering it and trying to take good care of it so that in a couple of weeks we’ll have more grass in the yard, and a space that we can really enjoy all summer.

We got some new chairs, and we ordered a fire pit. So we’ll be having a lot of backyard time this summer, which is a sign of how far we’ve come in the yard work department these last few years. I’m looking forward to sitting back there some (all?) nights, and I’m proud of the work I’ve done that has enabled that.

And we’ve already grilled a few times and enjoyed a couple of meals out on the deck. So there’s been some nice afternoons and nights already outside…I’m looking forward to some more the rest of the summer.

As for other activities? Well, I guess we’ll see how the social distancing goes and whether there’s any place worth going to, but if not, I think we’ll be OK. (We did have to cancel our big summer trip plans. I suppose I’ll write about that sometime.) I’m hoping to get some wiffle ball going in the yard at some point this summer…and we’ve obviously already become expert bike riders, so there’s more of that in our future.

Friday afternoon we all did some of our work outside - the WiFi seemed to handle that well, so that’s good. I imagine that will happen a few times over the summer.

And here’s the thing: I’m kind of hoping that’s how we’re forced to spend our summer. I’m not looking forward to a lot of choices - I think we all need to lay low for a while. I’m not crazy about this talk of baseball coming back - and you know how much I love baseball. I feel like that would be a mistake.

I had trouble putting my finger on exactly why, and it hit me the other day: about the only purpose baseball would serve the general population if it came back is as a diversion. I would want it to take my mind off of what was going on. And the way it would come back - I just don’t see it as a diversion. I think because of the fact that fans wouldn’t be able to go - or probably shouldn't go, if they’re allowed in some way - it would just keep my mind on the current situation even more.

It just feels like a big-time business decision that isn’t for the greater good.

My big feeling is we need to get through the summer, and maybe we’ll be able to be back on track in the fall.

Who knows.

I just hope we don’t take a step backwards.

*A couple of quick programming notes, all related to thinking ahead:

-It’s almost guest post season! The girls (and Kathy, if I can convince her) will be taking over the month of June, so I only have a couple of more weeks of my quarantine posts…before I hand it over to their quarantine posts.

-I might use that extra time to finalize some of my plans for Sucich Summer School. I have some grand visions for how I’d like that to go - maybe a couple of ‘episodes’ a week, with a different look than the live editions I did in April and early May. I’d like to make that work - I’ll keep you posted.

-I think the first week of Facebook Live videos have gone pretty well. I’ve enjoyed doing them - I hope you’ve checked out one or two and have enjoyed them as well. I figure I’m going to keep them staggered throughout the day for now - Monday in the morning, Tuesday mid-day, Wednesday end of the day, Thursday mid-day, and Friday morning - that’s how it went last week and likely will be how I’ll keep it going. And of course, it will be this evening that I’ll read this here post, if you’re interested in making it a conversation in some way. (I’m also thinking ‘end of the day’ could become later than 5pm. The end of my day is a lot earlier than a lot of other people’s.)

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