It's made me cry

Today's song is the shortest little thing but it digs very deep. I love the pounding old upright-sounding piano and the drumming on something solid instead of a normal drum.

I could never do chords on the piano. Too much to keep in mind at one time. I did one piece that was one page of crazy chords. It was so frustrating to me until my piano teacher pointed out that if the chords were all strung out in arpeggios like the music I preferred to play, it would be several pages long.

I am sad today because one of my good friends is moving away. It seems like moving is what people do. The bright side is being able to meet lots of good people as they come and go - the hard part is wanting to extend the time allotted to the friendship and knowing that change is inevitable. I know that I am not one with the right to complain, as I have certainly been the one who has had to move and leave close friends behind in the past - but that bit of reason doesn't really give much comfort as someone else's car pulls away.

Magnolia Electric Co - It's Made Me Cry

These things mean summer to me:

Some things on this list are memories and may never happen again. Others are ongoing. A few are new with the intention of carrying forward...

• reading late, late, late into the night
• star-soaked skies viewed far from civilization
• the Tetons: camping, walking, canoeing; buffalo, deer, marmots, bears; skipping rocks and reading in the hammock
• road trips
• the beach
• soaking thunderstorms on August afternoons
• sleeping (and freezing) on top of the water tower
• cold, yummy things on sticks: popsicles and ice cream bars
• books: Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury and Dreams of my Russian Summers by Andreï Makine
• five-week classes to take or teach
• smelling like a campfire
• walking my groceries home in the middle of the night
• hours and hours and hours to just listen to music
• season passes to Six Flags - meeting there after work for a few rollercoasters and some barbeque
• sunburns and mosquito bites (it can't all be good)
• riding in the tractor with grandpa or going with the uncles to move sprinkler pipe
• sparklers
• the smell of freshly cut grass
• housecleaning (yeah, I know that probably shouldn't be a seasonal activity...)
• 4-H projects
• Mom sewing new clothes for the next school year
• the garden: herbs, strawberries, squash, tomatos, peas, beans, rhubarb
• running through the sprinklers
• dancing salsa and merengue in the church parking lot
• Dad sneaking downstairs on the morning of the 4th of July to jolt us out of bed playing Stars and Stripes Forever as loud as the boom box would go
• Ferragosto and empty Italian cities
• Las Vegas, St. George, hiking up the Virgin River and floating back down again, the Painted Desert, Lake Powell, Flagstaff, the three mesas of the Hopi reservation, and of course the Grand Canyon - all within reach on a day off at Jacob Lake
• drawing - and maybe this year I'll go get a chunk of clay to play with on the patio.

Summer is good - so vital to have my blood pressure fall a few points for a part of the year, and it is beautiful to recharge and have time to follow a muse. What a lovely time of year.

Alphaville - Forever Young

And then it was over...

Yesterday was the last day of school for the kids. I should have everything wrapped up in the next couple of days. Liberty and Freedom. Hooray and Amen.

Dave Matthews Band - Cry Freedom