Summertime is Here !

   

  First off, I just want to say Congratulations to the Warriors for a spectacular performance and win of the championships tonight at Oracle and also to Kevin Durant for his second MVP Finals award. It is certainly deserving and I'm glad you received it this year, too ! I'm sure there are going to be many more in the future! Kudos also to all the Cavaliers who put up a valiant fight. You live up to your name for sure. I should know- I'm The Castle Lady ! What a great way to kick off summer in a big way ! !

     Every season, so far this year, has arrived early and it appears that summer is going to be no different. I’ve planted a brand new flower garden on the south side of my house this year so it’s going to be exciting to see what all comes up. Hopefully it will discourage all the weeds that have grown there in the past. Can one defeat weeds with seeds? Well, I’m certainly going to find out! I’ve zapped those weeds relentlessly for quite a number of years now and since I had some good bare ground for a change I decided on flowers rather than try to put in a lawn where no one will appreciate it. I even made a pretty path to go along with it of small flagstones (donated by my aunt Anne) and I may even put in a garden stool or small bench if there is enough space. For now, I’m watering, watering and watering and waiting. Some seedlings are coming up so it’s starting to take on some shape of an actual garden. It’s certainly making early June a little more interesting.

     You know it’s been many years since I actively have roller-skated anywhere because so many of Denver rinks have shut down over the years. My introduction to the sport was during one of my earliest summers where I just strapped some metal skates onto my shoes- with metal wheels, mind you!- which I got as a gift the previous Christmas. Talk about a take-off! I don’t remember a single fall with them on and they were my greatest toy for one summer. The ice cream man going by? Put the skates on quick! It was the only way to meet up with friends, find an empty parking lot or space somewhere and pretend we were at a skating rink. That was one summer.

     I never used them again. Many years later…after High School was over, after I’d gone to Opportunity School and was working as a professionally licensed nail tech I noticed that in California grown people were putting on professional-looking skates with new types of wheels made out of polyurethane. They were colorful and they dance skated in them so it really caught my attention. When I moved out to California I spent every weekend skating on the boardwalk at the beach in my own customized pair. I also went to roller rinks and roller disco parties in them. Roller-skating grew up for me in a very real way.

     When I moved back to Denver I kept skating at various different rinks and had gotten quite good at it. For a good twenty years I kept it as a very important and regular part of recreation in my spare time. The roller rinks began to shut down and even now there are almost none. When I heard that the rink which I had started roller-skating at as an adult was being revamped for its old purpose very recently I made a mental note. I haven’t actually gone through those doors yet because it’s been eighteen years since I last skated, I’ll bet! I’m going to challenge myself to go back to it because I’ll bet it’s like riding a bike. You know. You never forget, right?

     Well, I can’t think of anything better to get me away from everything- aside from going to see a movie which is also a rare thing for me to do.
Skating was the impetus of one summer many years ago, so I believe I’m going to let it be that one thing you just never want to give up doing. I could stick with the patterns I’ve let my life fall into or I can just go all the way back to one summer in the sixties and be myself once again. Summer time is HERE ! Here we go…

The Castle Lady