Looks like we’re getting an East Coast heatwave. This is gonna make work suck. Everybody else stay cool, stay hydrated, and hijack away!
We aren’t having outrageous heat here, but it is very dry and very windy, so we’re on a red flag warning for fire weather conditions. Bit of an upsurge in fire activity around California already, but most of them are pretty small and getting contained quickly. One near me isn’t under that much control just yet, but doesn’t seem to be growing alarmingly quickly. It’s 12 miles east of my location and would have to get through a lot of urban area to reach anywhere I’m likely to be any time soon. My biggest concern right now is potential air quality impact.
Morning, mumpers! It’s currently 14c/57f with a predicted high of 19c/65f, and partly cloudy. That suits me fine! Weather app says “Oh look. The fucking sun finally decided to fucking show up.” A clear sign that Download’s finished, because nothing says weekend music festival like Donington Park’s mudfest.
I am up and sheveled, the cats are circling and unhappy because there’s no breakfast. Shadow’s got a vet appointment for a fasting blood test, which means I can’t put food out for any of them. I expect to find they’ve all crapped in my favourite shoes by the time I get home again.
Clever title!
Yeah, here in Oh, its to be 90 all week. Its why I am up early to do anything early.
I must go try and train again.
Tomorrow the other job wants me to online train for some hours. I will have to chose one or the other.
Stupid dreams, I am feeling crappy because the dreams made me.
It gets better.
Howdy all!
Last night was kind of strange. My mom (mostly) heard a loud noise upstairs. MusicMan and I heard it, but thought it was outside. As it turns out it was all three guitars which were mounted on the Music Room’s wall falling to the ground. The wall (ooooold style plaster and lath) now has holes in it where they’d been hanging. The weird part is that they’ve been ok there for 2-3 years. Not sure what that’s all about. Then, MusicMan was up and sick with acid reflux issues about 3:30. I mean, for heavens sakes, give the man a break!
Today I am going to be having lunch with an old coworker from the job I had when we first moved here 8 years ago! She’s going to pick me up and we’re going to my favorite local restaurant. Otherwise, hopefully not much going on.
Was supposed to walk with a friend to work this morning but heard a huge T-boomer 20 minutes ago and it’s going to rain for the next 3 hrs. Then will be a high of 94 this afternoon.
Our daughter and her 2 friends went on a sunset dinner cruise while in the Cinque Terre (sp) Italy last month and they were able to jump into the water off the boat and have some fun with a huge pink flamingo floaty.
Nettie hope the fires get under control soonest. I hear you about the air quality issue. Last year the horrendous fires up in Canada caused the air quality in northern US was horrible. For daughter in Chicago and us in metropolitan Detroit, at times it was difficult for daughter and Hubs to breath with their bit of asthmatic issues. There was a lot of haziness.
Have a fun Moanday All!
We’re promised upper 80s/low 90s till the weekend, when the mid 90s move in. And it really won’t be cooling down much at night, so with FCD returning, that means the house will stay closed and the a/c will stay on. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.
Speaking of my sweetie returning, I got to thinking this morning that I’m not sure I’d stay in this house if he died before I do. (What a morose way to start the day…) Assuming it doesn’t happen for at least another 10 years, I’m not sure I’d be up to tending to all of this at 80 or more.
On the other hand, rents will likely be as much as my mortgage is now, and I’m not inclined to share a building with, well, anyone. Between the stories I see here and the crap MIL dealt with in her apartments, I don’t consider that to be a viable option. On the other other hand, if I can’t drive, living here will be really, really inconvenient. And a roomie is not an option. Period. End of statement.
I’ll just deal with it when I have to deal with it. Kinda like I do with life in general. Maybe I’ll be in the position to buy a house for Daughter et al that has a MIL apartment?
Plans for today - Higgs has an appointment with the groomer at 9:30. I’ll drop her off, run to Aldi, and she should be ready on my way back. I’ve already put the dining room back together, and I’ll damp mop the kitchen before the day is over. I need to put the basement in some order, too - Roxy’s idea of clean up doesn’t match mine. And I think I’ll build a cuke salad.
The flight from Indy is due around 4:30 tomorrow, but by the time they get the car, stop for a burger enroute, and come home, it’ll likely be close to 7 before I see them. I’ll be so glad to have my sweetie back - this house makes all manner of noises when I’m here alone. I was hearing voices last night. OK, it was the cat, but it sounded like a tiny little voice.
So, they return tomorrow. FCD and I both have Dr appts on Weds. Hospice nurse coming on Thurs. Hospice aide coming Weds and Fir… On top of the heat wave, this promises to be one of those weeks.
Happy Moanday!
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 75 Amurrkin out and mostly cloudy with a predicted high of 93 and partly N.O.S. for the day. Looks kinda stormy off to the southwest, so who knows. Sloth, nappage, and day drinkin’ shall comprise the day. Tonight is men’s night over to the church house so we shall betake ourselves there a little early to do setup as is our wont.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, onward into the day! Rah.
Happy Moanday Y’all!
Mornin’ all. Up fed, sheveled and soon to be off for a last day of school district stuff.
Read that as cake salad and was intrigued.
Cuke cake. no.
I am wondering if I will actually get paid for my 6 hours last week.
I wasn’t for the 1.5 hours 6 weeks ago.
I still can’t finish the training. I took one of the quizes 20 times and still failed.
I think its not meant to be. Same exact thing at the same place last Sept.
Mornin’ everyone! And a happy new MMP to all. 
A bit before 7am as I start driveling. The sun has just cleared the ocean and is now hiding behind a few coastal puffies for a bit, then will emerge in its full glory on what promises to be a mostly sunny day. My balconatin’ will probably only last a handful more paragraphs before the bright chases me in. But meanwhile the breeze is divine on mostly exposed skin.
I left all the doors open last night and the HVAC off. It was glorious, about 80/26 and breezy; very alive. I slept under a sheet and it was plenty. NWS now says it’s 82/28 on the way to 88/31 with showers somewhere sometime for somebody. The rest of the week should be about the same.
I have a recording thermometer on my nightstand. It says right now the temp is 80 and the humidity is 80%. Perfection in every way; so cozy. Soon enough this morning I’ll have to close up and turn on HVAC; don’t want any greater temp or humidity inside for long.
As to the MMP topic, we do get heatwaves and droughts and floods and cold snaps and all the rest of Nature’s weather irritants. Just not quite so beastly as y’all. Of course we also get the occasional hurricane that devastates a county or three, so there is that.
The summer solstice occurs at 0450 Eastern this Thu. So a hair under 3 days from now. Which moment marks the start of astronomical summer. Yaay!
You may recall from my home pix that there’s a pond right down below me on the golf course. Of course it attracts water birds and this morning we had not only a tall gray heron standing in there fishing for breakfast, but a mother duck towing 3 probably teenaged ducklings. Plus another four adult ducks hanging around nearby. Right now they’re sailing back and forth with no apparent goal.
Welp, Sun is OUT from behind the clouds with a vengeance and so I’m going in so I can see my screen to type. Balconatin’ was fun while it lasted. Also time to close up and turn on the HVAC so I don’t have to sit in its miserable draft for too long before we reach equilibrium at my favored 78F.
As to all y’alls’ last night commentary …
I laughed too. The answer of course is “All of them; every day is a fine day for inferior primate servants to serve their feline masters.”
Ever good day is a blessing to be savored. I’m so glad for you both.
I’ve told the story before of an old friend, now deceased, who was slowly dying of Hepatitis C in his late 60s / early 70s. As the disease ate his liver and he slowly but inexorably got more decrepit he really went off the deep end buying all manner of stuff for all his macho hobbies he could no longer practice. It was total denial / compensating.
The happy news was they could afford (withstand more like) what he spent and since none of the stuff was ever used, and much of it never came out of the original shipping boxes, his widow got a decent recovery on the money spent after she sold it all.
But what a PITA and a frustration to her while it was going on. He was 90+% mentally functional, but the “I’m gonna get better” denial, even after he could barely walk, was going “La la la. I can’t hear you!” so loudly in his brain that nothing she could do would penetrate past his scalp to make the slightest difference. Sigh.
Switching back to JtC: Better that your Hubs had sold or does now sell (or consign) the guns. But take some solace that he’s not buying more of them (or motorcycles or …) like there’s no tomorrow.
Tell him that all your imaginary friends will never speak to him again if he kills himself driving while exhausted. Either that or Shoe’s bit with the rolled-up newspaper ought to do it. Yeah, sure it will. Best of luck getting some sense into him.
You called it.
I had a good-sized vodka Gimlet, so fought scurvy but not malaria. That and some nuts, manchego, and pepperoni constituted my late balconatin’ dinner. It was even low carb, so dietarily correct.
As to your dietary needs …
Pro tip: You’d be amazed how much vodka you can add to Gatorade and herbal tea before it starts to taste funny. It’s the grown-up version of Mary Poppins’ adage that 
A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down 
Switching to today’s comments:
doggio: I love your sign. It’d be so neat if the state actually had that much sense of humor. Good luck at irk and mind that hydration yourself!
Boofae: Good luck w catly feeding, vetting, and pooping. We’ll await your later after-action report.
Everything lasts until it suddenly doesn’t. There’s probably no “why” to “why exactly then”. I bet the first to fall hit the others on the way down and they were about ready to go anyhow. A mystery to be sure. And a discordant one. El Ka-Bong!!
Yaay! It’s waaay past time for more good news in your world!! Self-care is good care.
I’m not up to tending it now and I’m 65 with no infirmities. You are a Force of Nature. At least for a while yet.
As to your larger ruminations, IME the vexation of living among strangers is inversely proportional to what you spend to keep the riff raff at bay. You don’t have to live luxo as long as you’re not trying to live amongst the ill-mannered folks who appear on Jerry Springer.
When you sell the house you’ll clear $X in untaxed capital gains / profit. Which will probably cover a lot of years of rent all by itself, not to mention the returns on that money while you slowly spend it down. Not to mention your other assets and income.
There’s also renting a small single family one story house more in town, so nobody too close, nor underfoot nor overhead. I was quite favorably impressed with the economics of renting a house when I did that for a year back in 2013-14.
Most folks who rent houses are more the Jerry Springer crowd, so being willing to pay just a tad more money than they could afford got us a vastly nicer house in a vastly nicer neighborhood. There is (or at least was there then) a real knee in the price performance curve. To our favor just barely on the high side of the knee. You might explore that option.
As you say, there’s no rush to do anything. But IMO/IME the ruminating has great value to help transform the unthinkable into the possible. And to transform the unthought-of into realizable possibilities. There’s pretty much no major life decision I’ve made that wasn’t mentally explored years before hand. Including the major screw-ups too, so advance exploration is no guarantee of good results. But failure to explore pretty well guarantees the best option is one you’d never considered and so skipped right over when the time came / comes.
And hooray for the imminent return of FCD! MIL … well … my sincere wishes for good luck with that.
Coppertone: I’m sorry you’re beating your head against this rock of a job. But if it is a rock, maybe now’s the time to give up and find a softer spot to put your head.
Good luck in any case.
As to me again:
Just past 8 now, an hour-plus has been duly driveled away, and now’s the time to shevel and feed or feed and shevel. Or skip it all and just go to the beach for a nap in the sun. My face is a bit cooked but the rest of me could use more radiation therapy.
Cheers and a happy Moanday to all!!
Good morning everyone. 78F here and headed to the mid 90s. Although this sounds hot it’s completely normal and average for Texas in June. Lots of rain, reservoirs are full, and we’re mostly through the hail and thunderstorm season. The only unusual thing is ERCOT (keepers of the TX grid) sending constant warnings of demand exceeding capacity, brownouts, and whatnot. They’ve cried wolf so often that no one listens anymore.
Father’s day was great, just cold beer, steaks on the (new*) grill and watching my favorite movie on DVD (Duel). I decided to set out 50’ or so of paving stones on a pathway that frequently gets muddy when it rains. This morning my back is explaining to me what a bad idea that was.
Today is PT and hassling the dealership about finishing the warranty work on the camper. Other than that, just the lazy life of a D.O.S.** retiree in the summertime.
Oh, almost forgot. Lucy (new dog) has become fascinated with our cell phones. They make funny noises and have flashing colors. She will pounce on an unattended phone and begin poking it with her nose to see how it reacts. Often we return to find our phones covered in dog snot, and on some mystery page or app. Thankfully she hasn’t chewed on any of them (yet).
*Father’s day gift
**Drain on Society, or should it be N.O.D.?
When the inlaws were contemplating their move here (so 2-3 years ago) I looked at house rentals, and even back then, most were pretty much what our mortgage is, and many were much higher. I had to chuckle at “in town” - this is a rural county, so “town” is pretty much older places adjacent to WalMart/Lowe’s/Target/strip malls/car dealerships/you know… There are no real walkable areas and the public transit is very limited. But time enough to figure it out, if necessary. Who knows - I could win the lottery and have a staff to cater to my needs!
Swampy calls himself a “retired drain on society”, so RDOS it is! I’m a proud RDOS in his image and you can be too! 
Duel is indeed a great movie, but given your life history I’m surprised you don’t find it a little too close to home for comfort. Although Dennis Weaver does triumph in the end, so it’s a hopeful tale in that regard at least.
An issue with anyone who bought years ago and with a good interest rate to boot is that, no, you can’t begin to replace like square footage and quality for like dollars. But that isn’t the goal. In fact you can’t even replace much less square footage and like quality for like dollars.
You now (and me in my time) have enjoyed a vast subsidy of living at far below the actual current cost of housing year after year for decades. Which subsidy is reflected back to us in the hefty equity payout we get when we sell. Admitting to yourself that your cost per SF will be hugely more anywhere else than it is in your current heavily subsidized house is just one of those “unthinkable” obstacles to get over. IMO/IME YMMV of course.
There’s your problem right there.
Again my prejudice is showing, but aging well and living anywhere but the suburbs / near exurbs of a major city simply don’t go together IMO. Everything is harder every day when you’re rural / semi-rural. At age 40 the difference is just frictional and there are certainly many compensations for it. Your environment is spectacular and so is your house. I have a twinge of envy every time you talk of it or show us pictures. I recall living in a big snazzy house in pretty countryside and enjoyed it immensely at the time.
As we age, those compensations shrink and the friction grows. Eventually the lines cross and we’re trapped in an overwhelming struggle we cannot possibly win. Medical care is far away, ubering is hard, and driving is harder. Et cetera for a hundred different issues. As Jane’s narrator said last night: “Nobody ever gets younger.”
I know you (and indeed all of us) know that. But knowing and doing are two different things. And doing is something that also only gets harder over time too.
I am very happy to report that Shadow did not poop in his carrier for a change, so we had a dry and stink-free drive to and from the vet. His weight is stable at 3.8kgs, his heart rate is good and although he has a slight heart murmur, it’s not something the vet is worried about. His blood test showed thyroid levels within a normal range, and he’s been treated to a mani-pedi so he’s come out of it pretty well.
The girls got some food just as I was leaving, and when I came back, I put al the bowls of biscuits back down. Shadow had two helpings of his current favourite cat food and then mugged me for lunch when I had a chicken tikka wrap. He’s now settled down for an afternoon snooze as befits a gentleman of his advanced years. He is also a retired drain on society, in his own way 
I’m glad it’s not going to be in the 90s here for a bit, but the forecast is for…SNOW tonight. That’s rude.
Good morning all. Set the alarm for 5:40am for my MRI so of course I was up at 5:15am. Got to the horse-pistol in good time, checked in and was taken on back where I had to change into hospital greens and get an IV. Then placed on the MRI table and buckled in (felt like an astronaut) and slid into the machine for about 20 minutes (so they said) then out, had something injected in the IV and back in for another 10 minutes then up, dressed and walked out–back home in less than two hours from leaving.
Couple of notes for folks who haven’t had an MRI yet in their life (this was my first). 1. It is a bit claustrophobic but not all that bad. 2. Holding still for 20 minutes is not as easy as it sounds. 3. IT IS NOISY AS HELL!!!
So home for a bit then out for a bite at Jersey Mikes and maybe get back to the swimming routine for a couple of days. Temperature here is already 81F at 9am heading to 94F and the whole week is supposed to be like that. No rain in the forecast, so might even have to water my lawn before I leave for my travels on Thorsday.
FCM, Pilot, I’ve been thinking about when and if I need to sell my house and look for other living arrangements. They have been building apartments like crazy around here, what with people moving in for jobs and better living, so my plan (such as it is and what there is of it) is to stay homebound till I’m about 74-75, by then all the apartment buildings will be up and if they have glutted the market, prices should be coming down. Or at least I hope so. Of course, life tends to mess up plans, so we’ll see how it goes.
JtC, hope Hubs takes his time and gets to you safely. At least he has several days to calm himself and sounds like your friends are helping him do so. Insurance can be a pain but hopefully you’ll be covered well.
boofae, glad Shadow is well and has a good appetite.
Sticky Buns, have had various things fall off walls (clocks, pictures) when least expected, sorry for the wall damage. Enjoy lunch.
Nettie, hope the fire peters out before it can affect the air too badly.
FCM, hope the trip back is uneventful for FCD.
Pilot, like you I’ve been able to run the AC only for short periods each day, but I’m afraid that time is over for now. Depends how hot the nights get, this place holds heat like crazy. My little desk thermometer is reading 78F and 65% humidity.
Yanker, sounds like a good weekend and a silly dog; they do go together, you know…
Y’all live in the Rocky Mountains? Or near Everest?
Alrighty then, need to do some morning internet catch-up and then get my Jersey Mike’s #3. Take care all.
90s yesterday, but a cold front moved in and we had torrential rains all night and this morning. Supposed to get some 6" during the week. Beats the heat, IMO.
Fed (hash browns, eggs, bacon, coffee), puzzled, Wordled, and off to exercise!
Hot this week in no. Illinois. My only concern with heat is Ariel. She doesn’t like it hot. However, the barn sent out an email that horses will go out at 6am and come in at noon. She also goes out after supper and spend the night outside with her girlfriends.
Ursala Kitteh is back to acting normal. She barfed a hair ball on her chair. I’m guessing the UTI is gone.
Taking a page from JtC and shoe I plan to visit a dispensary for something to get me through the summer. Heat throws me into a constant state of anxiety.
I spend my money, time, and energy on my anipals……
Montana. I’m sure @dolphinboy will be enjoying this system also, although he’s a 200 miles north of us.