Oh, Those Summer Nights

Summer lovin', had me a blast.

No, this post isn't about Grease, but those summer feelings were strong in me tonight.  It was one of those next-to-prefect nights.  And it goes something like this...

Well, it actually started this afternoon with the delivery of the most amazing flowers to my office.  Even with Nick gone working for nearly three weeks in another state, he managed to send me flowers for the very first time.  It was amazing!  Come to find out, he had been working on this exhibition of love for awhile and accomplished his task with the help of my aunt.  The event left me on cloud nine for the rest of the day. 

Several hours later, I got the call.  The call that he's coming home. 

There are not words to describe the feelings swimming inside me - joy, love, excitement, anticipation.  I guess there are words. So, after completing the last few pieces of work for the day, I took myself downtown for dinner and farmers market to celebrate my next to last evening alone. 

After enjoying a tasteful salad from Pluto's and getting a bagful of fruits, I was walking back to my car when I decided to take a side route to view the veteran's memorial in the downtown city plaza.  My cousin Janice was telling me about how hard she was working to get Uncle Gary Wilson's name on this veteran's memorial.  To my delight, there was his name.  I quickly snapped a picture of his name - Gary Edward Wilson - and sent to off to Janice and to my dad. 

The evening continued.

I didn't get home until after 8pm.  I had been wondering how I would manage to get a workout in.  Once I got home, I immediately changed into my running clothes, grabbed the dog and headed out for a short 2-mile run.  Sometimes it's not the distance or the speed of your run, just that you got out and ran.  That was the case tonight.  Lotus and I took off down the street toward the trail I affectionately call "Lotus Trail". 

Even though the run was a short one, it definitely was sweet.  There's something about summer nights that makes me smile.  Well, at least kept the smile going from the afternoon's delivery. 

The things that stuck out during this evening's run touched every sense.  At the beginning of the run, I could smell the many barbecues that were going on in the neighborhood.  Oh, the sweet smell of barbecue sauce!  As we got going on Lotus Trail, I could feel the temperature variances as we got closer to the water then move away from it as we were going back up the hill.  It was a breath of fresh cool air, then warm patches of summer love.  Heading up the first hill, the smell I got a whiff of was definitely not barbecue; well, maybe barbecue of a different sort.  It was of fire.  No, there was no fire currently burning.  The field nearby had recently burned, and I could smell the remnants of burning grass.  My thoughts immediately turned to Nick.

I could just about taste the summer air by now.  There's something so tasty about running late in the evening during the summer.  Between the temperature difference in the air and the barbecue smell, I literally felt like I was eating up my run.  What a great feeling!  Then, during mid-taste I hear a bird in the distance, squawking overhead.  Perhaps he was looking for his dinner, or eying the dog splashing in the recently filled ponds down below.  

By the time I was on my way back, the sun had set behind the coastal range.  The colors of the sunset reminded me of the big beautiful colors of the bouquet of flowers waiting to be brought home from the office tomorrow.  There was deep burgundy, bright red and vibrant yellow.  With the vision of the sunset in front of me, and Lotus pulling me up the hill toward home, I thought once again, "Oh, those summer nights."