July Good Bye

A last day of a long month, melted in mouth summer
31 joys of July, and we've had summer rain
not lingering too long but waking us up
at dawn mid-month with bowling alley continuous
thunder. Lightning zigging the pale clouds.
Tarah turns 20 this month. 20 years ago
I was in an Apple Valley hospital on my back,
epidural-stung and jellyfish bellied. She was born.
Long afternoons with a new baby and spinal headache
at my parents' house on Corwin Road, she asleep in
a tiny bundle of my arms, the pine trees on the old
ranch house and their needle-lifting singing on those
hot afternoons, the wind blows nicely on the Mojave
on desert summer days. This month, working long hours
on the desert anthology for Heyday, a monsoon-breaking
effort with zillions of changes and last-minute tinkerings.
Back and forth with Gayle at Heyday and Jeff the assistant
in downtown Riverside, mega-copying and fed-expressing
at the Kinko's on Magnolia. July 4th the blah of fireworks,
here in the Ritz Lands, resorts in nearby Indian Wells
(next door and across the street) have displays many times
during the year so it's not a novelty anymore. Two canceled
vacations to the beach, too busy working. Teaching the
Inlandia Writers Workshop at Riverside Library. One drive
to the Santa Rosa Mountains on the old dirt road backside
with Phil, to Dripping Spring, an hour on washboarded in and
out canyon pillaging. A real adventure. Cool and lofty up top.
Saw a nephrologist this month and it was made official, SSRI's
were giving me hyponatremia, a state where the kidneys lose
too much sodium and compensate with water retention. Nice
bike rides, 8, 10 mile clips on eves that aren't too hot this month.
Can only ride after dark in July. We have had a mellow month
temp-wise for Palm Desert, not much over 110, which is a joy.
Still too hot, and my AC was out for three days. Lots of
Hanging Around the Fort. Swimming in the pool, watering
the sunflowers and morning glories and marigolds and mint
in the garden. August will be a time to be off. We're heading north
to the redwoods and eastern Sierras. Adios, another July.
20 years of mid-summer hello's and goodbyes.