OK, so baseball season doesn’t officially start for a few more days, and the last frost date is still two weeks away, and I can’t wear white shoes for at least a couple more weeks, and … you get the idea. But it’s officially summer here at the Hippie Headquarters in beautiful Red Fork, Oklahoma.
Here is how I know: Tonight, as I was getting ready to leave to go out to dinner with some friends, Scout launched into a barking frenzy that was spectacular even by her standards. I finally hushed her up just enough to make out the unmistakable strains of canned calliope music.
That’s right, kids. The ice-cream truck is back.
If I hadn’t been heading out for dinner, I would have gone dashing out the door to buy one of those ice-cream sandwiches made of two giant chocolate-chip cookies with ice cream in the middle and miniature chocolate chips all over the outside. Because they are absolutely heavenly … and they taste even better when you buy them off a guy driving a pink cargo van with pictures of ice-cream bars stuck all over it. 🙂
Another sure sign of summer: I’m dragging my butt out of bed early tomorrow morning to go on a long run with the Fleet Feet crew. I didn’t sign up for the marathon program this spring, because I didn’t think I had time to train, plus Suzanne and I were going to run together on Saturdays, plus I didn’t want to run another marathon until fall. But I’m definitely going to try OKC, and Suzanne is out of town this weekend, so I e-mailed my coach to find out how far his group was going to run tomorrow, where they were going to meet, and whether they’d mind if I made a special guest appearance.
As luck would have it, they’re doing their longest training run of the season tomorrow. Dunno if I’ll do the whole 20 miles with them (I was planning on 15 tomorrow), but hey … what’s another five miles between friends? If the conversation is good enough, and the weather is pretty enough, and the course is interesting enough, I might just run the whole thing. I stocked up on Carb-Boom the other day, and I’ve got a new pair of shoes, so you never know.
One more sign of summer: The Cubs’ season opener is Monday in Cincinnati.
Hooray for summer!
Emily
Red Fork Hippie 