Monster Mushroom

It’s cold this morning! Only 46° as I’m sitting here out on the back porch—chilly! And I want to go back to bed. I’m tired. Tucker had me up twice during the night to go out. He’s still sick with diarrhea and even after being let out twice, he left me another little pile to clean up in the hallway this morning. Nice. But, for August, I’m stunned at how cold it is outside! I went for a run yesterday morning and it was a perfect 55° and I thought of how it didn’t seem all that long ago I was so happy to finally be shedding my winter running gear for a warm spring morning run. Then how quickly that turned to be too hot and muggy to run outside, and here we are again, at last, finally into cooler fall temperatures that make for wonderful runs. This is certainly my favorite time of year. But for sitting out on the back porch in the early morning hours, this is just a little too chilly. I think we only shut the air conditioning off last week! I’ve given up and am now sitting in the warmth of the kitchen, waiting for a small pot of water to heat up on the stove to make Squiggy’s formula for his morning feeding. I could use another cup of coffee to warm myself up.

So here it is, the end of summer. Some kids are already back in school, others start this week or next, and I know a couple lucky ones who won’t go back until after Labor Day. Where did the time go? Every weekend we’ve been busy running here and there, and Michael’s schedule was packed with day camps and swim lessons. Somehow we’ve missed out on Kennywood and Sandcastle—we’ll have to try to squeeze that in next year.  I am ready for fall. One neighbor already has a pumpkin sitting out in their flower bed and mums are filling the gardening shelves at Lowe’s, Home Depot and Walmart. Next the Halloween decorations and costumes will appear in the stores and I’ll be avoiding the temptation to buy candy corn and harvest mix—I love the little pumpkins!! And of course, Christmas trees and wrappings will be soon to follow before any of the Halloween gear is even packed away! No wonder our years become whirlwinds, flying by faster and faster—who can possibly keep up?

Yesterday’s picture of the day is of a monster mushroom in a neighbor’s yard. The picture hardly does it justice. It had to be a good eight inches across or more atop a trunk of a stem—massive! Tucker gave it a good sniffing over and I made the mistake of showing it to Michael who, in typical boy fashion, only wanted to smash it. I warned him not to but he took his friend Christian up to see it later in the day and the mushroom is now no more. Boys—why can they not be happy unless they’re destroying things?

Gigantic Shroom