Oven-Baked Texas.

 Oven-Baked Texas.

 

Currently, it is 105 degrees on the front porch and 115 degrees on the back deck (west side of the house). It’s also 92 degrees in the living room according to the thermometer. Knew it was uncomfortable, but had not looked at the actual numbers until just now. If a swimming pool were in my back yard, we could make soup by just getting in it right about three and staying in it for a couple of hours. Can’t remember the summers of my childhood being this drastically hot. But according to the weather man, it was cooler in Death Valley than in WF yesterday!

 

Talked to Connie this morning. She is all choked up and coughing. Around here it is just one sneeze after another. Have a little thing called Pollen Count on my computer. According to that site, it is “just” grasses causing the problem. When the rag weed hits, the pollen count goes out of sight and everyone understands, but at 5.1 or there abouts, no one really expects to be sneezing from can ‘til can’t.

 

And those men down on the highway putting in new pipes for the electrical or phone lines are still working out there in this heat. Yesterday, a wet hand towel around my neck seemed to help. And those guys are just out there in their bright yellow shirts without a hat on their heads! Even using a Ditch Witch and those dinky little backhoes, their work still requires a shovel often enough. Need to pray that none of them have heat stroke!

 

This is a really good time of the year to not read the news. Well, maybe the time of the year is not the problem. Maybe it is just the state of the world in general. Some guy wrote a song that came out as fairly popular when yours truly was a teenager. In it, he sings, “Let’s forget about the whinin’ and the cryin’, the shootin’ and dyin’ and the fellow with the switch blade knife; let’s think about livin’, let’s think about life!” During that time of my life, the newspaper hardly ever mentioned anyone’s death unless it was just someone special—a celebrity or famous politician. But lately, we get every stabbing, shooting, bombing, and intentional death by police officers. [That last means the person basically forced his own death by shooting at the officers.] About the only good news is that they caught the escaped mental patient criminal from Vernon down in Austin. Otherwise, we are made aware that a bad beetle is after the aspen trees, the worst possible bugs are coming in from Mexico to attack our fruit trees, and a new breed of tick is set to kill any warm-blooded creature out there. Great green beans and little ol’ jelly things! We need some good news for a change!

 

Escaping into a silly book made me feel good yesterday and into the late evening. The dogs kept looking at me and wondering about the noises coming from my mouth—just laughter. It was a story about a woman and her teenage twins who left London and her cheating (tax and infidelity) husband to move back home with her parents on an island in Scotland. They got there right before a major storm blew for an entire week. The hamster got out, her mother insisted that her father put her pole back up for dancing, and the neighbor—Sally Next Door—yep, that is what she was called—came over to tell her kids to stay out of her yard! Because no one could get on the island or off the island during the storm, the local grocer had to keep the dead bodies in her freezer where the frozen lollies were normally stored because the local doctor had no place to keep the bodies. Oh, it was a madly funny situation from the get-go! The writer has another book coming out this month, so if it is as funny as this one, maybe the old woman will remember to give you her name and the name of the books.

 

The trip to Market Street recently included what was supposed to be Ginger Ale. Um. No, it was not. Lemon-lime flavored sugar water! Oh well. Next time the old woman will just order the danged stuff and have it delivered. Forgot to get coffee filters anyway! Jennifer had me make a list on my phone one time, and since then, well, some of us are just a wee bit forgetful. Maybe Siri will show me how to do it this next time.

 

Really have nothing great to say about much of anything. Got four eggs early this morning. Might need to talk to the dogs about having scrambled eggs for breakfast. Sounds better to me than baby bunnies! Patty wants me to come down early in the morning and let her dogs get some exercise. Roxie has been treeing squirrels and is totally frustrated with Patty for not shooting them. Donny used to shoot them with a BB gun. Down there where no one can see us, we might just think about that. Know my dogs would love that business. The squirrels just sit behind the wooden fence and cuss the dogs thoroughly. Danged rodents!

 

Please take good care and don’t get outside unless it is necessary. May God bring us rain and peaceful days soon. Find joy in the little things. You are loved.