June could just possibly be my favorite month. There is so much going on like the Shakespeare Festival in Forest Park, the Green Living Festival at Missouri Botanical Garden, the First Health and Wellness Taste of Vegan Festival, the Sustainable Backyard Tour and the 18th Annual Pond-O-Rama. Whew. No wonder people leave town in July for vacation, everyone is exhausted from June! For all you dads out there for Father’s Day, we have our Summer Beer Guide again for June, July and August. Let me just say right now, Cheers! Skal! Prost! Salute! Sante! Gan Bei! You get the idea. St. Louis has some fantastic breweries ready for your enjoyment! Get hopping! June is also a great time to find a great summer camp program for your kids. And coming from a kid who went to many camps in my childhood, it’s an experience every child should have. So many great memories and experiences happen at camp. There’s a lot of growing up to do and plenty of creative time to go along with hours and hours of just having fun running and jumping and swimming. I was even a camp counselor in my young adulthood. Plenty of memories to last a lifetime. June is also a great time to get back in action on the golf course, the ballfield or the tennis courts. And with added exercise comes added injuries. I suggest checking with one of our healthcare professionals and get checked out before breaking, pulling or spraining something. A good workout program, stretching, and getting plenty of rest between extreme workouts. Oh, and drink plenty of water so you stay hydrated. Save the beer for the 19th hole. June is also the time we are getting back in our yards since we have had a late and soggy spring. Got my tomato plants in late so I probably won’t be eating any tomato sandwiches until early August, at least from my garden. Gonna see how the squirrels do this year. I have my plastic owl back out on pole patrol. His head bobbing and weaving in the breeze. Maybe this new generation of tomato snitchers will find Hootenstein more menacing than their parents did last year. All this rain has kept me inside working on a new book this spring. It’s a murder mystery. In my second rewrite. Had a blast writing it. I understand now why they say it’s the process not the product and the journey not the destination that’s most enjoyable. I can’t wait to start my next book. I have a series in me I am sure. And at 66 years old, it just shows, better late than never, right? I had to get a new laptop at work, because my old operating system that runs my graphics program I use to layout The Healthy Planet, was too archaic to handle the new browser updates. In fact, AOL bumped me off rather rudely a couple of weeks ago. And now my old Firefox is about to do the same for my Gmail. I could alleviate all this by learning a totally new graphics program and updating my Mac hardware and everyone would be happy. Uh, no. This is one old dog that doesn’t mind learning new tricks, just not new graphics programs. I know I am being stubborn, but darn it, I like my old Quark. I know what to expect. There are so many bad surprises with all new software updates. You know what I am saying. It has happened to you, too, I am sure. So I got a new laptop to receive all my emails, files, articles, etc. now. It is so sleek and fast and all the browsers work so well. It was a $1000 fix but it will keep me up and running. I wish I had the time and interest to learn a new graphics program. But I am not feeling the love right now for that adventure. There is already so much to do in June, I doubt an InDesign class can be squeezed into my busy schedule. My dance card is already filled with brewery visits and teaching my grandson Jackson the game of golf! Oh, and squirrel chasing.
Just Sayin…, J.B. Lester
