Happy Independence Day, Americans!

O, happy, noisy bird,

Right outside my bedroom's open window,

I wish you had not waked me,

But I cannot be angry at you. 

You are so authentically cheerful

about this bright new morning.

No rain.

It will be hot. 

But yes, it is once again daylight

And we are alive and well.

Do you know about global climate change? 

No, there are still bugs and seed for you to eat. 

You do not worry about corruption and greed, 

but rather hawks and snakes and foxes, 

and whether there are bits of grass to make your nest. 

It is cool this morning, 74 in my house. It has been a while since it was that cool. I must rush downstairs and bake cookies while the windows are open. It will heat it up some, but I have been out of cookies for awhile. 

Ray is asleep, his work done for now.  

Didn't sleep very well. Up at 5:10. Going to pick up my Dad for some diagnostic procedures, a trans-esophogeal echocardiogram and another thing. We'll have the results before he leaves the hospital. I just have to wake up enough to drive to his house and be pleasant. You know how it is when you have to get up early. You wake up every hour or so from 2:00 on.

I am sure there are some things that like this weather: tree frogs, for instance? or insects/ The chickens are panting. The cucumbers are dying. I'm not great, but I appreciate air conditioning and not having to work outdoors all day.

Same Story

I feel like I am writing the same story over and over. It must be pretty boring to read.

Today, like most days, is divided into chunks, at least in my mind.

I wake up before 6. Ray is already up. I figure out the sound I am hearing is the washing machine. Good old Ray! He has remembered. I had this plan to run the wash before 7 (during the 11-7 super off peak electricity period), but I didn't get up early enough yesterday and I forgot the load ready to start until my Dad arrived with his laundry. "Oh, no, that's okay," he said. "No rush. I just thought I'd bring it in case you weren't using the machine today."

I feel groggy. I can't seem to summon any energy for the things that I want to do while it is still cool. Breakfast doesn't really appeal, but I eat more than half of it, while trying to find a chink in the difficult Sudoku I am working on. Ray is full of energy. It is the day of the final for his summer class and then he will be free until August...except for his new responsibilities as Assistant Head of the Geology Dept. He has a meeting tomorrow to find out more about what those might be.

He is ready to go for a walk and I drag on my dirty jeans. I have washed the dirty socks I was wearing every morning, so have to go upstairs and take some clean ones out of a drawer. This pains me, as I like to use already dirty socks and then put them in the wash, rather than take out clean ones (when I am not clean). This is not a problem during the winter, but I rarely wear socks now.

This brown thrasher, and his or her mate, spent a lot of time in our yard, but they are gone now, I noticed today. 

It is a little cooler outside, over 70, but under 75, and very humid. I opened a few windows, against my better judgement, and there is a little breeze. I lag behind, but manage to complete the walk route with Ray. He rushes up to shower and leave. I reluctantly work on the beans left in the sink from yesterday. My Dad picked them and I committed to washing and freezing them. Then I was so decadent, I left them all day, spending the time looking at my new knitting books and inventorying needles and yarn. We left the house again at 5:15 to go to the movies and eat dinner out.

We saw Obvious Child and enjoyed it. I will say, however, that it is clearly a movie of my children's generation. There are many movies we all like for lots of reasons and there are some movies they do not want to see, like Casablanca. Mind boggling. There are a few movies that they love and I just don't get. Garden State is one example. There are also movies that I thought were guy humor, but might be just for younger viewers. Generally, they feature lots of sex and drinking and sometimes drugs, or maybe fart jokes. This movie was like that. Except the protagonist was a woman. Hmm. Anyway, very enjoyable and well done. Set in NYC, which I enjoyed.

After, we went to dinner at Highwire, the "new" restaurant Shawn, the maitre d from Porterhouse, is managing. Sadly, he was not there. The food was good and not expensive. Kent liked the decor. I was disappointed. It felt like a bar...with food. I had fish and chips and it was very good, but the menu had lots of sandwiches and fried food. There were some vegetarian options, which I appreciate, but not a lot of veggies. Anyway, we had a lovely evening with them, and it wasn't very late at all.

We went by J's to leave the bridesmaid dresses and pick up some food they were getting rid of before their trip. They were sitting watching TV, not rushing around as I had expected. They are driving up to the northeast in the convertible, so they will pack this morning and leave about 11 or so. They plan to stop and see Amelia today...and hopefully will connect with Molli at some point. So, the dresses will be delivered. We will probably visit later this summer, but won't be driving, so it will be harder to transport the gowns. The gown itself is not horrible. It has one shoulder strap, but the color is a bright apple green...or even appletini green. Amelia, as matron of honor, has a different color, a dark brown. I hope to see pictures when they try them on.

The beans in the sink were slimy--note to self, don't do that again. We had a little rain two days ago, so they were a little muddier than usual, and that mud had redistributed itself, combined with the heat, and the beans were already starting to rot. Sadly. However, I have cleaned them now.

After Ray left, I spent some time outside. It is the only time of day to do it. I found a few more green beans to pick and about a cup of blueberries. I fed the chickens. They are suffering some from the heat, too, losing feathers and looking a little pathetic. There was a nice fresh egg, though. I did the sunny parts first, and spent the last half hour in the shade. The sweat drips down my face, but it's not that bad. I look forward to my bath. When I have done all my outdoor work, I can go in.

You can tell it's hot because Cameron, the dog, is inside. When the warm weather started, he spent most of his time outside on the porch, particularly on the chaise lounge. My mother used to sit there enjoying the sun. I can still see her in my mind's eye, and even feel her presence a little bit. Now it is Cameron's spot in the spring. But these hot days, he is inside before I am, waiting for me to close up the breezeway doors and window. He hopes I will invite him into the air-conditioned house, and I probably will, later in the day.

I take the beans and blueberries in and rinse them. I try to convince myself to cut the beans up and cook them, before it gets any hotter, but I tell myself I will do it later. Sadly, I have left the windows open too long. It is 80 out now and I have wasted probably an hour of the time that the house has been getting hotter instead of staying cool.

Then I remember the laundry. I have to hang it out before I go upstairs to my bath. I really don't want to. Just the towels, I tell myself. I put the wet things in a basket and take the towels out to the line and hang them up. It's not that bad in the back yard, in the shade. I go back in and get the t-shirts. They need to be hung up, they will mildew in minutes. Pretty soon, I have hung up all the laundry and feel good about myself.

Now I can go upstairs and take my bath, making sure all the windows and shades and doors are closed against the heat. Today's forecast high was 99, but they have adjusted it down to 95. Such a relief!

Funny thing about the water heater. Every day it was shutting itself off. When you start to run the hot water and you can tell it's lukewarm, you have to go down two floors to the basement and reset it. It's not electrical, not the circuit breaker, but a reset switch on the water heater itself. My Dad suggested, and he must be right, that it shuts off when it is too hot. The solar water heater in this heat and sunshine, is routinely pre-heating our water to temperatures higher than the water heater finds acceptable. So, we are saving electricity there for sure.

Today I am so hot I don't bother to reset it. I let the water run into the tub, tepid feels about right. My skin cools down and I am very comfortable. I even wash my hair. Having wet hair on a day like this is quite agreeable. I figured out some time ago that long hair is best in hot weather, as it can be very effectively pinned up off my neck. Sadly, I cut it a month or so ago for a job interview. I thought it went well, enjoyed talking to the director, but never heard a word. Even the temp agency hasn't called me. It used to be I could count on temp work when all else failed, but I guess the combination of my not being young and cute and the recession has made me less in demand.

Out of control

It was a wild ride this morning.

I slept late, almost until 7. We stayed up late, finishing our Janet Evanovich mystery, Notorious Nineteen. It was pretty good, better than some of hers, and that was the denouement. It was probably after 11 before we went to sleep. It has been really hot and humid, so we don't open the windows at night. We turned the ac down to 76 for a while and I slept well, kept my mask on all night. Yes, I am trying to be good about it again.

Breakfast came right after I got up and I didn't have much appetite. I noticed a weird lump in my neck, like a swollen gland. My Dad arrived while I was not eating. We chatted some...he always has things to say, but I don't remember any of them today. Eventually, he headed out to the garden. Ray and I took a very short walk, since we had no time. Daddy asked me where the string was and I said I would find some, which I did after a bit.

We showered and dressed and were getting in the car. Dad asked if I would bring him a bucket, so I did. Then we were gone. On the way to Ray's office, I called the doctor and got an appointment for 11:45. I went from his office to Earth Fare, where I enjoyed taking my time. I needed ginger for the cookies I started to make yesterday. I couldn't believe I had used up the ginger and not even put it on the list, but could not find it anywhere. Then I bought some other critical supplies, like potato chips and tea and chocolate...

Next stop, Watkinsville. Sadly, Main Street Yarns is going out of business. They are a beautiful shop with lovely things and I regret that I have mostly been too cheap to buy the quality that they sold. They did still have some gorgeous 100% wool yarns (as well as all kinds of other interesting things) and I bought a ton of stuff, spending huge extravagant amounts of money...but I am generally pretty frugal and feel like this was a good treat. Some of the books will end up as Christmas presents for Amelia, so they don't count. I wished I had inventoried my needles, too, as they have great wooden ones and I need to know what the gaps are in my collection. Surprise! I bought 3 red wooden chairs to be our backup chairs when we have guests. I checked and they were quite comfortable. They let me have them for $35 each. Someone could refinish them if they wanted.

After paying my bill (!), I checked the time and decided I could zip over to the peach stand. I bought some peaches and found I had enough appetite for an ice cream cone.

The real reason for my trip in with Ray today? I had to pick up Molli's bridesmaid dress and get it to Janna before she left for her trip north, when she will be seeing Molli, at least briefly. As I was texting with her, Amelia chimed in, "me, too." So I picked up two dresses at I Do I Do bridal. They are not the worst bridesmaid dresses, but the bright green is pretty horrible. They have only one shoulder strap. I am sure the bride loved them. Maybe a rule of wedding planning is pick the dresses first and then the color scheme?

Got to the doctor's office in plenty of time. She says not to worry about it, it's probably my lymph fighting a virus, like Ray's cold, and will go away within a week. If not, we'll do blood work and start worrying. Of course, I still had to pay the $20 copay (and my insurance paid a lot more).

Picked up Ray, got prescriptions at the drug store, and came on home...only an hour before the power fast.

Saturday, June 28

Blueberries winding down...Liz picked twice, gave some away, but many in the freezer..and some out for tomorrow's pancakes. My Dad and I dug the rest of the potatoes this week. I hope we eat them all before they go bad.

It's almost pleasant for a couple more minutes. Some of the windows are still open and the fans are going. I have already had a short walk and a bath. I'm wearing clean clothes and nothing itches too much right now!

We didn't pick berries this morning. They are winding down and Ray helped me pick last night. I'll probably check them again this evening. I also picked 3 little round cucumbers and both green and yellow beans. I started washing and cutting up the beans this morning, but still have some to do. I try to balance and not overdo, so I don't hurt my back or burn out too seriously.

Attempted action shot of chickens jumping/flying up to get berries.

The "baby" chickens are almost as big as the adults now, although none are laying yet. We are reliably getting two eggs almost every day, from Nancy's chickens. The injured one (I named her Winifred) doesn't lay. In fact, she doesn't jump up to a perch, but she walks just fine. We keep her isolated in the small coop for the most part, because one of her sisters pecks at her when she gets the chance. I am looking forward to Nancy taking them back. All the grass from the run and tractor is completely gone.

summer

It’s hard to imagine a time when you had to sit on Sundays and not do anything that could be considered work. I am bored to death and I have lovely options. I read my book, I read my e-mails, I look at cookbooks. Sometimes I do a little food prep.—cutting up onions or something, but no cooking. It is over 90 outside and I am like a kid, watching the clock, only I watch the thermometer. As it gets a little cooler later in the day, I will go outside and let the chickens out. I might pick some more blueberries. 

We had a nice lunch at Loco’s—my Dad, john and deb, john and gini. My Dad had suggested we go somewhere different from DePalma’s. He was having some digestive discomfort and thought Italian might not be good. We had a very good lunch at Loco’s and I thought about why we prefer depalma’s generally. It is the atmosphere, I think. Loco’s is full of TV sets and people dressed pretty casually. I think DePalma’s is a step up, although the food is not any better and the menu, which is interesting, doesn’t have the main dish salads that we seem to prefer. Ray always orders chicken caesar. Now that the service is at 10:30, we usually try to order wine when we get to the restaurant, but they tell us, “no alcohol until 12:30.” Daddy was puzzled today—why did this just start to be a problem? The answer is because we used to get there an hour later…just about 12:30 at the earliest. 

So here we are home with nothing we have to do…too hot to go outside, no need to cook (and truthfully, no energy). Ray has been sleeping a lot the last few days, fighting off a cold. He seems much better today, but is working on his computer. I assume he has a lot of work to catch up on for his class.