Summertime Friday Five

1. Favorite summer food(s) and beverage(s)

• Food: Fresh berries, of almost any sort. Strawberries, cherries, blueberries-- and since we moved to Montana, I have become besotted by their cousin the huckleberry. Oh, and ice cream! The local stand opened just last week; I love to walk down and get a cone on a warm evening. Or afternoon. Or morning. (Is there a bad time of day for ice cream?)
• Beverages: Fresh lemonade. Root beer floats. Frozen margaritas. mmmmmmm. . .
  

2. Song that "says" summer to you. (Need not be about summer explicitly.)
Just one? Not possible; there are a boatload, and it depends on my mood. A short list, in no particular order:

• Fun, Fun, Fun, The Beach Boys.
  
• Fox on the Run, The Country Gentlemen. (Please note: this is the bluegrass classic, not the 70's Top 40 hit of the same name that some of you may remember)
  
• Hotel California, The Eagles
• I Feel Lucky, Mary Chapin Carpenter
• Get out the Map, Indigo Girls
  

3. A childhood summer memory

• Sitting up high in the huge tree in the front yard, wedged into a comfortable spot on a sturdy branch, reading a Nancy Drew novel-- and scaring the bejeebers out of the postman by saying hello as he walked underneath.

4. An adult summer memory

• During my CPE summer, after an overnight call of horrific proportions: three dead (including two children), several more injured, dozens of relatives and friends alternating between despairing collapse and murderous rage in their grief. By the time I was done that morning, I had been awake for something like 27 hours. I was on autopilot, beyond numb with the magnitude of it all. I finished my reporting at the morning meeting with the chaplain staff, and walked out the door-- into sunshine, and morning breeze, with damp on the grass, and the birds. . . and the wondrous presence of God's grace amid all that had been hit me full in the face.

5. Describe a wonderful summer day you'd like to have in the near future (weather, location, activities).

• We're actually planning this, in a few weeks! I hope the weather cooperates-- sunny and warm, but not too hot, and a gentle breeze would be nice. We hope to spend some time getting to know this part of the world: driving in the mountains, doing some hiking out in the middle of nowhere, and camping out or staying in a decent hotel/bed & breakfast, as the mood strikes us.

Optional: Does your place of worship do anything differently in the summer? (Fewer services, casual dress, etc.)

• Not especially, no-- though none of my churches are air conditioned, so I often leave off the chasuble in hot weather. Nothing disrupts a service like clergy collapsing in the heat.