June bug, Carter, Juniper berry, Kalinka! School's out for summer. Summer reminds me of the overwhelming expectations of all of those gratifying moments deferred until we finish our work and can finally cut loose. Time to hit the beach, camp, raft a river, and go on a long road trip to a concert, a car race, a water park. The reality rarely lives up to the expectation. By the time we press through all of the work to get to summer we are too exhausted to actually do all the things we talked about, and end up laying on the couch watching television, underwhelmed by the tedium of everyday domesticity, finding excuse after excuse for why we can't do all the grand things we set our minds to.So exhale, sink back into your chair and relax, as if it were a picnic blanket on a cushy patch of grass. Like puffy white clouds drifting across a soft blue sky, let your thoughts flow along the gentle breeze, taking shape into something mystical or mundane, spiritual or sexual, depending on who is reclining on the blanket with you. Look, over there, can you see it? A dragon with an egg in its talons! Or is it the enormous face of an old man, chin stuck out, forehead protruding? Matilda, is it a jolly jumbuck that swagman is shoving in his tucker bag? No, says Sophie, that is certainly some goat bucking in 'er crag. It's all in the minds eye of the beholder, that mythical crusty orb with wings and a ginormous psionic ocular organ. Alright, so I lied. Deal with it.A series of misadventures, misconceptions and illusions, the story is a ramble through the experiences of one life offering some wisdom, some creativity, some beauty, and some pain.