The ongoing “heat emergency” has sort of put a damper on my summer plans. Not, I guess, that I really had any hard and fast plans in the first place.
My hope was for Georgia to have something sort of resembling my own summers in the ’80s and ’90s, which were mostly characterized by benign neglect. At around Georgia’s age, 11, a typical summer day for me would begin whenever I woke up. I’d make breakfast, which was cold pizza or cereal or a Pop-Tart or maybe microwaved ravioli. Sometimes, if I felt extra-fancy, I’d make ramen with crumbled Pringles in it – practically gourmet, especially the Sour Cream & Onion flavor. I’d watch Nickelodeon or MTV or read a Sweet Valley Twins book until it got late enough that I figured my friends would be up, and then I’d ride my bike (no helmet, obviously) around the neighborhood until I found other kids to play with. I don’t even really remember what we did. We dared one another to do stupid shit. We watched more Nickelodeon and MTV. We drank overly sweet Kool-Aid. We sometimes found a house with a pool or a Slip ‘N Slide. We played Nintendo games inside when we got too hot. Sometimes we were able to beg someone’s parents to drive us to the mall or the Fun Arcade. When my friends went out of town, I’d watch TV until I started singing along with the commercials, which always set my mom off enough that she would kick me out of the house and tell me to get some fresh air. (I mostly learned to stop singing along, but it took me longer than you’d think to catch on to that.)
Things were off to a decent start a few weeks ago – Georgia would wake up decently late and ride her bike (with a helmet, obviously) to various kids’ houses in the neighborhood. They found a playground. They discovered an abandoned house that they dared one another to go peek in through the windows. They had a lemonade stand. They ran through the sprinkler.
But now? With a heat index of 118, it feels like the surface of the damned sun as soon as you open the doo. I can’t send my baby out in this, not even soaked in sunscreen. We only leave the house before 10 a.m. and after 4 p.m. For those six hours in between, we stay inside.
So we are rediscovering the joys of Netflix. Of reading. Of painting each other’s nails. Of drawing and doing puzzles and playing cards.
As for what we’re eating, it’s way too hot to turn on the stove, so it’s a lot of cold pizza and cereal and Pop-Tarts and microwave ravioli.
But later this week, I might introduce Georgia to the taste sensation that is Pringles crumbled into ramen.
I hope everyone is having a great summer (I am!) and staying cool despite the scorching heat.
If you have suggestions of what we should be doing, watching, eating, or reading, please send them my way at evekiddcrawford@gmail.com.
