Mornings, Sugar and Hope

Fun to see the deer.

We intended to get up and walk this morning on what we've dubbed the "****" walks - the routes The Husband prefers.  Which generally mean we have to get in the car to drive there.  And then planned to stop at Waffle Love for breakfast.  After all the birthday festivities and included treats, we both opted to save the waffles for another day.  I'm determined to try one of their waffles plain, not being a fan of whipped cream which seems to adorn in abundance every serving of waffles.  I think Waffle Love will  be our next luxury meal.  (I call any meal I don't have to prepare a luxury meal.)

I enumerated for our daughter the massive ingestion of sugar from the day:  german chocolate cake (with the traditional from-scratch coconut pecan frosting) servings x 2, free birthday sundae at the restaurant (shared all around), ice cream with one of our cake servings, a shared ginormous orange cream shake from Arby's (brought by a neighbor) that had to be eaten immediately plus the pan/bowl scrapings from when I made the frosting for the birthday cake.  I slept well last night but figured it was really a sugar coma, we rarely indulge in so much sweet food. 

In spite of that, I woke at my traditional 5 a.m. ready to face the day. I so love the morning. This morning's vista on our walk was so pretty we wanted to walk the other direction to continue our enjoyment of the sunrise on the clouds.  The welcome clouds - I'm hoping they'll mitigate the fierce heat we've been having. 

Good Mornin' to Mom &baby. 

The mornings are generally cooler.  Which means our walking paths sometimes feel like we're playing dodge 'em with all the other people out trying to get in some exercise before it gets too hot. I think I've been saying for several weeks that I'm anxious already for summer to be over.  I should never wish the time away, I know.  I'm just such a wimp when it comes to the heat.  Couple that with our current heat wave - the one gripping the entire western part of the U.S. - and the dire water situation and I really am ready for the fall to come hoping it'll mean more precipitation. 

This morning's walk included a deer sighting (he meandered across the path right in front of us) and a stop at the little farm along our way to greet the alpacas, goats and chickens.  The chickens have been conspicuously absent of late, so it was nice to see them pecking at the ground today. 

I am full of hope:  that we'll make it through the summer without burning up in the wildfires (or any other fire for that matter), that the power won't go out because of the really intense heat wave we've got going on (so happy I don't have an all-electric car) and we'll manage to stay cool enough with our air conditioning, that we'll get some moisture from the heavens to stem the drought that is so worrisome. 

I'm looking forward to an afternoon at a movie. And am grateful for gift cards to pay for said movie.  Am also grateful to have been able to celebrate another year of The Husband's life - there are no words to describe how much I love Him and how lucky I feel to have him around.