Little Things At the End of June

Last night we had a campfire at my parents' house and the kids ran around and caught lightning bugs. We roasted hot dogs and watched storm clouds blow in. We didn't get home until 10, which is very late for us these days. Other than the weekend we picked M up from the end of his trail run, I haven't been out after dark in months. Max slept fitfully and in the morning when he woke up he told me he had swallowed a Lego and he was really worried about it being caught in his throat. But then he seemed to wake up a little more and we figured out that was just a dream. 

I worked at the restaurant for a little while today.  I was alone and only prepping food and cleaning things up, which is the lowest-stress situation you can have while working in a restaurant. The basement is filled with bar stools and chairs, removed to spread out the customers. I listened to several podcasts in a row without interruption, a rare experience for me. 

On my way home, the man who panhandles on our corner gave me a sack of sandwiches for the kids. I thought it was a very nice gesture, sharing what you cannot use yourself. 

I'm not spending as much time on my front porch as I used to. We have air conditioning now so when it gets very hot we just turn it on and go about our business. Before we had air conditioning it would become too hot to do anything and we would sit on the porch with our feet in buckets of water. Just sitting for hours.... chatting with the neighbor or painting with watercolors or counting cars. It's the end of the month and there are moving trucks everywhere. One is parked across the street. The trees block my view of the porch, but I can hear a man talking loudly on the phone in Spanish. 

There are fireworks going off, of course. From all directions.

There is a man shouting into the booth at the gas station for a particular brand of cigarettes. 

There is the whoosh of a bus pulling away from the stop. Bass from a passing car rattles the flowerpots. 

Everyone going about business as usual. It seems fine, but there's also a sense of anticipation in the air that I can't quite identify. What will happen next? We're all thinking it, but afraid to say it out loud.