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!!