We had a very boring weekend.
S worked both days, filling in for a hospitalist who is on maternity leave.
The girls all spent time with friends.
I read, watched some shows, swam.
It was our first weekend in quite awhile where there weren’t multiple things on the calendar that we had to rush around to. It was a nice change-of-pace, as next weekend and the holiday week following will both be very busy.
Kid Hoops
A quick blurb about L’s most recent games. It was a 3–1 week, which was a little unexpected. One team sent their JV squad instead of varsity, giving our girls an unlikely win.
Thursday night CHS took on HSE, which should be a top five 4A team this coming year. HSE has a senior who is ranked in the top 70 in her class headed to IU, and a junior who is ranked in the top 50. The senior is listed at 6’4” but I don’t buy that, as she walked past me after the game and is definitely not taller than me. Despite her size, she’s more of an outside player, and she hit at least five 3s on her way to 25-ish points.
The highlight of the night for us was L having to guard both of those girls on a couple possessions. She got switched onto the IU girl once, and that girl drifted out to the corner to clear the lane for the other D1 kid to drive and score. The next possession she again went to the wing and got the ball. L challenged her, the girl passed away, and when a pass came back and went awry, L chased after it going for the steal. Big girl used her longer arms to grab the ball then blow by L for a layup. Later L had to guard the junior and got hung up on a screen and allowed another layup. She did about all she could and had no chance. Unless she grows another five inches that’s about the best she can hope for against D1 talent. She won’t have to guard many players as good as these two in the coming year, so it was a good experience.
I believe we are 11–5 for the summer with four games left.
Summer Vibes
When we left her games Thursday it was nearly 10 PM. The western sky was aglow with the last hints of daylight on the longest day of the year. That’s one of my favorite parts of summer. Not the long days themselves, but that final glimmer left in the sky in the 30 minutes or so after sunset.
When I was a kid that glow meant the drive-in feature movie was about to start. Or it was time to start chasing fireflies. Or that I had a few minutes of play left before it was time to go inside. Or when I was really young, that I had one last burst of energy before my body started to shut down for the night, often transferred to bed by a parent after collapsing on the couch or floor.
The best part of that final light of the day was that it meant the intense heat of the daylight hours was dissipating, at least a little. Nothing is better than a warm, summer night. I love how the heat that gets absorbed by pavement all day gently radiates long after the sun has disappeared. Walking across the pool deck barefoot at night, on concrete that would have burnt my soles six hours earlier, is one of the great pleasures of summer.
I’ve long been pro-cicada, even in those crazy, infestation years like 2022. Or this year, I guess, a couple hundred miles west of here. The weeks when the fireflies are still abundant and the annual cicadas start bucking their heads are the best weeks of summer.
Worth noting I heard my first cicadas of 2024 Sunday evening.
Speaking of best weeks, I was thinking about how I would rank the best weeks of the year, if the calendar was divided into three week segments.
The first three weeks of June would be awfully high on the list. Most years that means warm, but not yet oppressively hot, days. Humid, but that good, late spring humidity that doesn’t suck the soul from your body like July humidity does. Early June means everything about summer is still fresh and new. Picking berries, sweet corn, building up your tan, going to the pool every day and it still being exciting. My birthday.
What other three week chunks would garner votes?
That’s harder because the other contenders are all kind of sequential. The three weeks after Labor Day, when summer is fading but autumn hasn’t arrived. Any three weeks in October, when the transition of temperatures finally hits in the Midwest. Some three-week section of the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, when the world is lit up and decorated.
I’ll tell you what three weeks would not be on the list, though: Any three weeks in August. Or January. Or February.
Fuck all of those weeks.
Anyway, we are about to leave one of my favorite times of the year. The heat dome has shifted away from us for the time being. The week ahead looks very nice, a make-up for last week being so brutally hot. If the weather cooperates and our evening schedule allows, I might get to bust out the Solo fire pit for the first time.