Tag: boomers

Ode to Summer of 2025

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

And in the blink of an eye, the greenery outside is shifting to gold and variegated shades of brown. The beans and peas in the garden are long gone, while the tomatoes are plump and juicy and the pumpkins are turning orange. Kids are gathering their school supplies and finding out who their teachers will be. The sun is setting lower in the sky as summer gives way to autumn. I am ready because in some ways, it has been the summer of our discontent.

I spent way too much time this summer keeping our home clean and “show ready” to sell. I am quite sure that I appeared to be a homeless person as I stored our dirty laundry basket and shoes, etc., in my car (because no one wants to see dirty laundry when looking to buy a house.) After several showings, we got a solid offer at the end of the summer. It turned out to be perfect timing since the closing date was three days after our move in date for our new home. I guess I wasted a lot of precious worry time on this. (A post on the new place will be coming.)

A lovely couple about our age bought our home. I always thought it would be a young couple with a family that would move in here. It just goes to show that life is never what you expect. After the offer was made, they came out to see the tractor, as they were interested in buying it too. We enjoyed a glass of wine and a toast to their new home as we sat out on the patio. This was while the house was still pending, with several inspections yet to be done. The four of us had a good chuckle knowing that our realtors would probably not approve of this get together prior to the sale going through. Boomers… always breaking the rules.

Summer highlights in pictures

This is an obligatory post. Kind of like the short essay you had to write when you returned to school every fall. The essay that was written in response to the prompt, “what I did last summer.” While it has not been your typical easy going, relaxing summer, we did squeeze in some fun things along the way. We tried to stay close to home since we needed to keep the house up and there were constant decisions on the new build. We had a great builder, but it is still imperative to keep a close eye on the building process to ensure it looks like you expected. While this is fun and exciting, it is also mentally and emotionally exhausting to me. This is definitely our last build. Next stop, the nursing home.

Instead of the essay, I thought I would tell what I did last summer in pictures. Besides, a picture is worth a thousand word, right? So fair warning – photo bomb ahead.

The only thing that makes a summer concert better is when it is out on a boat.
Snuck away for a beautiful night in Seattle to see a Mariner’s game.
My friend and I spent a lovely afternoon trying our hands at watercolor painting. You are never to old to learn something new.
We celebrated our granddaughter’s second birthday and enjoyed time with her and her new little brother.
We took our oldest two grands camping for a couple of days. The weather was not great so instead of swimming we rode bikes and played lots of camp games.
We got a couple nights of gorgeous sunsets at the campground.
And it would not be summer without a trip to Arbor Crest Winery with my sister and her family.
Good wine, good music, good company and good views.
The state fair is fun for all ages, from my two-year-old granddaughter to my 98-year-old dad. Honestly, who doesn’t love a delicious elephant ear?
The finale of summer is our annual extended family campout over Labor Day weekend that son #2 and our niece organize for us every year. So nice to pass the scheduling baton on to the younger generation.
The adults did a lot of campfire sitting while the kids played games and built this fort that kept them entertained for hours.
Son #2 and my BIL won the annual corn hole tournament this year.
The campout culminates with the nominations and vote on the “knuckle head” and “knot head” awards.

But mostly, I just spend this summer cleaning and packing up our stuff.

Welcome back

If you are reading this, I would like to say thank you for coming back after I took the summer off from blogging. I know that long stretches without a post can be the death of a blog. And if you are a new reader, I would like to welcome you. While writing seems to be stuck deep in my DNA, it is the readers that give me the energy. So, thank you again for following along. I hope that you had a wonderful summer!