It has been a month of Sundays since I have spent a leisurely afternoon on my porch. What with the heat, humidity, and the mosquitoes and such, my rocking chair and I are barely on a nodding acquaintance. Well I decided to reintroduce myself today. It was one of those early fall days with a slight overcast and a gentle cooling breeze that had my red oak leaves whispering to me to sit down and jaw a while.

But after such a long absence, you can’t just plop down and pretend you never left. You have to prepare the sight; there were spider webs where I hoped to settle, and a good supply of summer’s dust and leftover weariness to remove. I went looking for my water hose. I found it still connected to the spigot where I had unfortunately left it last year. It was split and no use at all.

Now normally during the heat of the summer this would be a problem, but Autumn brings out the jumpiness in the legs syndrome that can only be solved by a prescription known as, “let’s go to Lowes!” When I returned from getting my new water hose, (and a few other badly needed items), it wasn’t long before I was humming in harmony with the whispering leaves and cleaning that porch area to beat the band.

I have to brag a little at this point about the spiders that live with me. They build some of the strongest webs known to man. I had the water pressure turned up to fireman’s velocity and when I finished, they were still there. They were God awful wet and drooping but still clinging to my chair.

It took scrubbing with a good dose of cleanser and several sponges to finally remove the last of the sticky, soaking, yucky, remnants of summer’s respite. I was a little soaked myself, and I began to recognize the signals of needing a nap. I shook off the feeling, blaming it on retirees’ remorse and decided that a hot shower and change of clothes would get my motor started again and I would return to the peacefulness of a leisurely rock in my chair. Besides, it all had to dry anyway.

Someday soon I know there will come a day when the air has the gentle scent of violets. The cooling breeze whispering through my red oak leaves will beckon me to sit a spell, to have a cup of coffee, and wave at the neighbors as they walk by. I know the rocking motion of my chair will bring to mind all kinds of memories of days gone by, and I will enjoy the experience very much. But today a hot shower led to a cool nap. But I must admit to some satisfaction, if nothing else I did strengthen my own web a little, sometimes that’s all we can do. Come rock with me on my porch, and remind me to unhook the water hose before it gets too cold.

I’ll be right back.