Dick’s Hideaway:

Speed bumps on a summer afternoon

Dick MacKenzie - www.dickshideaway.com

Yesterday seemed like a sultry summer afternoon in New Orleans, hot with no breeze. It was gorgeous looking out from my perch at the lakeside bar. I could see 10 kinds of wildflowers from my seat, along with throngs of Tiger Swallowtail butterflies and numerous others like the Pearl Crescent in the picture.
It was an afternoon of pleasant contemplation. I puzzled over a strange occurrence two days before, when I was suddenly overwhelmed with dizziness and a sick stomach. Even the black ink in one of my tattoos raised like speed bumps in a parking lot. I blame it on the outdated melon slices I ate earlier, and the fact that I'm seldom sick and probably subject to "man cold" syndrome. Early to bed.
Woke in the morning with eyes stuck shut, but washed the goop away and, except for a dreadful weariness that required three naps, everything was fine. I believe my body repelled the attack of the rotten cantaloupe.
Strangest of all, though, was the following night when my dream took me past a room full of Boston fans cheering on their Bruins. Although I am not a hockey fan (but if I were I would root for the Maple Leafs) I cheered my heart out for the Bruins. I was really belting it out, raising the roof, when I felt the elbow in my ribs.
The last couple days have been nearly perfect. Speed bumps are gone, energy restored, June weather is beautifully summer-like, and I am able to sit, guilt-free, watching the flowers fill the yard (along with arse high weeds which can't be cut without destroying the flowers), smoking cigars, downing modest amounts of wine, drinking in the grandeur of nature's colorful landscape.
I wonder, though, why I haven't seen a single bee on my dandelions this summer.
And I wonder, too, who won that Bruins game the other night.