Summer weathered Journal Entries

1 creative work found

• The Weather, Starbucks and the Last Vacation
  by Alexander Greenwood

  This week’s weather fairly begs you to break out of your cubicle or office, loosen your tie (or equivalent) and get outside. Just cool en…

  This week’s weather fairly begs you to break out of your cubicle or office, loosen your tie (or equivalent) and get outside. Just cool enough to be crisp and invigorating, but not so warm as to be uncomfortable, this brief interregnum between the reign of winter and his hated rival summer is like a mini vacation. Speaking of time off, I’m heading for a little rest and relaxation soon on a beach in faraway Florida. “This is the last vacation,” I said mournfully to my wife as we folded laundry. She looked at me with more than her usual look of indulgence, rolled her eyes and said “It is not.” “But it is,” I said, pointing at her tummy. We’re having a baby in a few months-our first-and I know this means the carefree days of Key West, the Bahamas and Mexico are at an end; at least for a about 18 years. (Okay, I’m being dramatic. But our next trip to Florida will likely have more to do with a large cartoon mouse than a coconut full of rum.) “Don’t be silly,” she said. “Put away your socks.” Back to spring. Were it not for the fact that my favorite beverage at Starbucks-a grande mocha-is now the exact same price of a gallon of gas, I could take solace in the hot chocloately caffienity of it all. But no, that pleasure, like the spring, is limited. And I have sworn off other indulgences as I save for the last vacation. It’s a tight economy, and the baby will need new shoes. Or Pampers. Or baby bottles not made of that certain plastic. So I sit, the window blowing beckoning breezes into my office, the Starbuck’s a tantalizing walk across the street. It might as well be as far away as Key West. Key West, where by golly, I will have my mocha and damn the consequences. Iced, of course. It’s hot, there, you know.