Strawberry Moonwatcher

These are the longest days of the year.* It's warming up, and temperatures for Thursday are to be into the high 80s. Our first lightning bug (firefly) showed up on June 6th, after 10 p.m. at night. We were sitting in the bedroom watching movies, when a tiny light appeared outside our window. Up and down, around and around went the light.

The lightning bug practically tapdanced on that window for 7 minutes straight. Up and down, around and around, again and again. I had just said something about them to my husband a few days before, asking whether he'd seen any yet. I guess that first lightning bug was answering my question with a resounding YES! News flash! I'm here! I'm here! Let summertime commence!

My husband had a medical appointment in town in the afternoon, and the power went out - again - around 11:15 a.m. "Doesn't it seem like the power always goes out when we have appointments?" he asked. Why, yes, somehow, it seems like it does. Just to add to the degree of difficulty. . . .

I'd tell you we showered in the dark but we are better prepared than that. We showered by lantern light, dried our hair outside in the sun. The power conveniently came back on at 12:38, with a loud beep (that's the smoke detector singing), just before we had to leave for town. 

That gave us time to turn all the fans back on; and to turn off the stuff that weirdly comes ON after the power goes out. No air conditioners are in yet, which is probably a record. It's been cool and rainy so far. We've only had a day or two here and there where you'd really need one. We have window units; when they go in, we lose some of our nice views of the yard. So we hold out, as long as possible.

We spent the early evening sitting on the shady deck, enjoying a sometimes surprisingly nice breeze, watching the hummingbirds at the feeder. The guy who fixed our shed roof after that big tree fell and our front steps will be back on Thursday to work on the deck. After multiple assaults by fallen trees, the deck will finally be fixed. 

Part of the deck railing (and half of my roof) was taken out by a whole bunch of trees that fell in an ice storm during the first week of January 2005, my first tree tragedy which was the granddaddy of them all. A tree fell every 15 minutes that night. MOST of them hit the house. 

I was living here alone back then (I did not get married and move a husband in until 2008). The power, the phone, everything went out for days. That was one of the scariest experiences of my entire life, and I'd just BOUGHT the house in May of 2004 (the huge, gorgeous, shady deck was a main reason why I bought it - I told the realtor that I wanted to drink my coffee on that deck every morning for the rest of my life), so fate seemed unusually cruel to try to ruin it so fast.

A whole bunch more of the railing fell to waste when another tree hit in mid-August 2021. We called several contractors; most were booked out for months. It was daunting. We gave up for a while. Then we finally did have a contractor show up and give us an estimate a year or two ago; he asked for $1000 cash up front to purchase materials (which, in retrospect, I'm glad we never gave him). 

After that, he never returned our calls, and eventually, we gave up on him, too. I admit to some disappointment with my fellow man over it; we lost motivation after that. I wonder how many people have a similar experience with house repairs. It just makes you feel stupid, then somehow vaguely incompetent, and finally, mean.

This new carpenter guy is going to do the repairs on Thursday and Friday, and my deck will finally be whole again, for the first time in 20 years; he hopes to be done Friday by mid-day. So we must move everything OFF the deck before 8 a.m. Thursday. The hummingbird feeder will migrate off into the meadow, as will the beautiful red salvia plants in their pots, and some little yard tables and chairs.

As darkness fell, we moved inside. I'd read online about the strawberry moon - June's full moon's name - and was hoping to catch moonrise with my camera. I went out - as it turns out, a bit too early for the moon - and was strolling down the driveway when I spotted a brown form behind the milkweed beds: the doe!

There is a doe with two yearling fawns who has been hanging around the house, now that it's summertime. I'd seen one of the yearlings earlier; it ran from me. But here we stood around dusk, just the doe and me, a pair of potential strawberry moonwatchers, quite peacefully contemplating each other, as the lightning bugs began to gather for their big show.

I need a soundtrack song, and I want something in honor of Brian Wilson, who passed into immortality on this day. Sloop John B is a personal favorite, and so here is a very nice version featuring Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, and Matt Jardine. Go well, sir. Thank you for the music.

*The longest day's length around here (State College area) is a bit more than 15 hours in mid-June. The shortest day's length is just a bit more than 9 hours in December.