And here we go with the heat advisories. Today it will reach 92° with a heat index of 95° to 100°.
This is my least favorite part of summer. You really can’t go outside for more than a short time. I’ll water the plants on the porch this morning. We did get some rain yesterday, but not nearly what was predicted. I checked the radar and every big storm was either just to the north of us or just to the south. It’s like the storms got together and agreed to avoid us.
It’s not that I love storms and wind – I don’t – but the rain? Yes, please. Especially now.
I also woke up too early and that isn’t helping my mood.
I’m trying to stay away from the news this week, other than watching the hearing on Thursday evening at 8 pm. My spinning brain needs a break.
I’m just about to finish my book. Reading has also been slow lately. I feel too scattered and it has an impact on my concentration level. I read a lot last night in bed and saved the ending for this morning so I could fully appreciate it. This Mick Herron series is so darned good! The one I’m finishing is called Spook Street and the next one in the series is London Rules, which is arriving tomorrow.
If you decide to read them, read them in order.
Okay. Time to water the porch plants and take some photos before it becomes unbearable!
Stay safe.
Happy Tuesday.
what a lovely garden … all that green feels cheerful and cooling. hope you can get outdoor tasks done early and quickly, then stay in with the air conditioner and a book or puzzle.
also, prayers continue for you and don (and everyone else) to get good test results today!
we are having similar weather here … not enough rain, just very hot and muggy. also (with the exception of last satuday) very bright sun and, if there are any, clouds are small and few … no shade. yesterday was our 17th day this year of 90-plus degrees. temperatures are to reach 90 to 97 every day for the rest of this month, except for two and those days it’s supposed to be 89. ugh.
stay safe in every way, everyone!
and happy tuesday.
kathy
Stay safe Kathy
My girl is Katheryne Kathy for short to mom
When she went to Indiana U to college everyone called her by her formal name so her husband and all do also she is my little 5 foot Kathy
thanks, brenda. prayers said that you stay safe and well, too … in every way. hope everyone in yourfamily (and everyone everywhere) gets/stays that way, too. !
hope you and your kathy get to spend time together soon!
on my first birth certificate, hospital staff spelled my first name “katherine ” (an assumption based on katherine hepburn’s popularity), but my parents had them correct it to “kathryn”. all my life i’ve been “kathy” except to strangers and for official purposes.
hope you are keeping cool and have a nice day. :)
kathy
She and husband came July 3
He left 7
She leaves tomorrow
Can fly now that she is negative
Her name is a long story
We have had a long visit despite C
glad you’ve had a nice, longer visit together!
and especially that she’s now testing negative.
safe travels and overall safety and wellness!
kathy
The heat is crazy and it will last for several days here. It’s dreadful, isn’t it?
Stay safe, Kathy.
PS Thank you for all the book recommendations you send my way. xoxo
dreadful is a good word for it. this extreme weather is almost oppressive, too.
you’re welcome. not that you need help finding good books to read!
hoping and praying that the test results have come out good, that you all feel good and stay that way.
stay safe and cool, too.
kathy
Thanks, Kathy.
xo
These hot days are good for staying in and reading. I am reading Claire Fuller’s “our endless numbered days” which I am enjoying. The author’s descriptions of gardens and forests made me think of you and your property there.
Ah, I’ll have to check it out, Ellen!
Stay safe.
I just finished it and I must say it has a confusing ending! At least confusing to me but it was an interesting story.
xo
I am so glad you are enjoying Mick Herron’s books. We (my husband and I) just finished Slough House. We enjoy reading sentences from Jackson Lamb and Diana Taverner out to each other to savour the imagery in his words.
We recently watched the series they made of Slow Horses on Apple. It was excellent. The casting of Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb is spot on. I hope you have an opportunity to watch it.
I tend to not watch any adaptation of a favorite novel because I have the characters firmly created in my imagination and don’t want them messed with! I love Gary Oldman and I’m sure he’s great but I probably will stay away.
Thanks, Miche.
Stay safe.
My daughter might get to fly home tomorrow night
She plans to do so
Allegiant flights are usually fine
She turned fifty Sunday and missed her family but did fine with MOM. She is negative now for several days
Still praying for mom to stay ok
It has hit my family
I don’t watch the news as you know and helps me tremendously at my age and health
Take care of yourself
Last year I had an adjustment getting used to living in Florida and not visiting
I still walk six times a day but short ones
I don’t let the weather keep me in despite the pain in the winter when I lived I. The north
I have to keep walking and going
Hope you and the Don don’t get it…I just think of him as the Don after
Seeing him in the tv shows
You are
Both dear to me
Prayers prayers prayers
Thank you, dear Brenda.
Stay safe.
It’s been very hot here so not going out much at all. I read Lincoln Highway (finally got from library) and loved it. Thanks for the recommendation.
So glad you loved it, Linda. I secretly hope he’ll write a sequel.
Stay safe.
I, too, send my good wishes that Don will test negative.
And me, since I live with him!
Stay safe.
Catching up from yesterday, so concerned for you and Don about the Covid exposure. Fingers crossed and said a prayer for you both. My husband wanted to risk getting a free sandwich the other day (some kind of promotional offering at a restaurant), even though he’d have to go indoors (I wasn’t much for this!) but it’s tight surroundings on any day, and especially was this day as a group of 14 students with an instructor moved in right before him to line up inside the restaurant … and NONE of them, including the teacher, were masked; so my disappointed husband turned right around and just left.
What I notice, even with my own friends, is that people are taking far too many chances. Vigilance has fallen to the wayside. They think they’re being safe, but they’re not. And large summer events, in my own town as I think I’ve previously mentioned, are happening as if there’s no Covid; these events will draw big crowds of people although there’s this long, slow warning, like WHAT day soon, that at least INdoor mask mandates are to be reinstated soon, at least in L.A. County.
I’m going over to a friend of mine’s this afternoon and she wanted us to come inside but I’m just dropping off (a drive-by hello), because she continues to go out, see people (you know, act normal, as in ‘the old days’ and not in pandemic); she had an electrician in her house for two hours yesterday and didn’t require him to be masked, nor was she. I just can’t risk being around her. Is very sad. I haven’t hugged her since 2019.
I heard a doctor talk on TV several nights ago … he was I believe from Mayo Clinic … and he was despairing of how nobody is taking the BA5 seriously; that what will happen, and this is no guess (rather, ‘reality’), is that (because of people not caring to be careful; thinking, ‘okay, so I get Covid, but my symptoms will be mild since I’m vaccinated; I’ll feel bad for a few days like flu or cold but it won’t last long’ [they never seem to stop to think that they risk becoming a long-hauler, even though initial symptoms could be ‘no big deal’]; clearly-obviously also not caring of who they infect) one variant will follow the BA5, then another, then another … because we can never get to a point to mostly eradicate the overall virus and avoid those future variants from forming/growing from the one before it — so it is indeed ‘the people’ (the disobedient, careless, selfish) who are continuing this neverending nightmare and preventing the rest of us from living normal lives ever again.
We’ve of course been warned about this for over two years. I don’t believe for a minute that it’s people being uninformed, because there’s a lot of info out there about the virus from many sources. What it IS is, willful behavior.
Wanted to also say, be careful of this East Coast heat, Claudia; it was all over the nightly news last night on TV. Is to be 112 degrees where I have cousins in the South USA; of course we’re not ‘cool’ in Southern Calif, but we’re nowhere near (right now) what’s projected for other parts of the country.
I like the way you staged the Blythe yesterday, on the porch table. Because it really helped me get a perspective of her size in relation to other stationary objects.
Take care; stay safe; be well.
Vicki, I totally agree with everything you said
Thank you for your comment.
same from me.
be safe and well, cool too.
kathy
Me three! Oy!
I ventured out to old cinema venue in Palo Alto, sat far away from others, in mask – it was probably 1/2 full – great to see Casablanca on the big screen. Upon leaving, the lobby was jammed with no-maskers. Fun to get out again;no fun to worry.
Martha, I didn’t see your comment before I wrote a second one. I felt too hot from the weather to do much of anything today but lay low, so I did watch some daytime TV, insulated from the world with indeed an old movie from 1955; and, although, unlike you, it wasn’t in a cinema and I was instead just at home-sweet-home, I still got the ‘Calgon, Take Me Away’ feeling; transported for a little while. (I guess I’m showing my age with the Calgon ‘jingle’. My 1970s youth!)
Thing is, when you hit that lobby with the unmasked people, at least you had on YOURS!
Linda and Kathy’s comments are kind, but then I was wondering if I was being too harsh by lumping ‘people’ into a category of being willful about the virus. So, it got me to ruminating about my own comment; the definition of ‘willful’ … the deliberate way we act toward another: “Showing a stubborn and determined intention to do as one wants, regardless of the consequences or effects.”
(In my view, childish and dangerous; bewildering to me, how it doesn’t bother some-other people to be causing harm with this destructive virus [something so simple as ‘masking’ in an active medical crisis; this refusal on the part of many to ‘mask up’ when it’s something so inexpensive and simple to do, yet they just don’t; don’t care; self-indulgent; only thinking of themselves]. Maybe chronic pandemic-fatigue just got to others faster. Frankly, these behaviors will be studied for years now.)
(But I guess a warning is that it’s just another example of societal breakdown? [Ever take a basic anthropology class in school; learn about the collapse of societies? I didn’t finish college, but I definitely remember things I learned in Anthropology ‘101’.] Didn’t we used to be smarter than this? [Or am I being too high & mighty?] I feel we’ve lost a sort of ‘elegance’ as a populace; what happened to us from when, say, my parents’ generation suffered years-long hardship [and extreme poverty] in The Great Depression of the 1930s, yet they and THEIR parents retained their dignity and a sort of refinement-sophistication-reserve [modesty, courtesy; GOOD behaviors] despite the challenging times with which they were faced [it didn’t even have to do with higher education — I only had ONE grandparent who was able to finish high school, whereas with the other three, one only had a 3rd-grade education, another only schooling to 8th-grade; the other with no school past the age of 15; and they loved school, but the family’s survival came first, with kids instead having to work the family farm, or in a factory alongside the adults; I have three instances in my great-grandparents’ ancestral tier where the mothers died in childbirth, so the oldest daughters had to take over the work of the home and raise the younger siblings while their widower-dad made the living; this was all in a short period c. 1896-1913; but no complaints, just doing what you have to do; and even with the deficit of lesser education, it was about how they were raised, the family values, how you live by the Golden Rule, help a neighbor, never break the law, etc.].)
Maybe the point I’m trying to make in my ramblings/thinking-out-loud, to myself if no one else, and it’s a question I’m sure we’ve all asked before (no ‘new’ thinking here; I’m not inventing the wheel): Every generation has SOMEthing to challenge it, but how do they meet that challenge? How are WE doing with global threat of deadly virus; what kind of ‘grade’ would we be getting on the old scale of A to F? Seems to me, despite the A+ of creating vaccines, amazing strides made in the medical community of how to treat Covid patients, we’re failing to ‘fell’ the virus; it’s not a success story (so far), and you can’t blame the scientists; it’s us, the people, not doing our part. There’s a resistance … a belligerence … to do what’s right, which I find so troubling. As if we’re naughty children. But also a pervasive hostility I find difficult to wrap my brain around.
My husband says it’s a multi-layered thing; I guess years of certain people feeling they’ve been ‘put upon’ too much already, having felt they had a life in chains even pre-virus. Fed up with enough other stuff that Covid rules and advisements are just one more thing (to rebel against; fight off what they view as more chains?). Economy, politics, etc. How we perceive our personal freedoms. Takes a lot these days to navigate ‘life’. But you can choose to be a good navigator rather than a bad one, no?
And not blame the rest of the world for your problems. Have instead the discipline to self-solve and just get on with things, since there’ll never be a perfect world. Have some pride. Be a grownup. Calm your frustrations. Don’t rage; try to corral it and turn it into something constructive. (I think it’s called ‘self-control’.) Learn to cope better. Look for a silver lining. Have faith. Just try to do good and be good. Make a choice to NOT be the other way with all those negative emotions of OTT anger, resentment and self-pity. It’s so much needless stress. Our great-grandparents, grandparents, parents had it tougher, and they survived. To think they didn’t have anxiety and fear for their future would be false thinking. But they didn’t wallow; they rallied … individually and together … in the hard times, and got thru catastrophic disease like polio; world wars, economic devastation. I wish they were here; I wish I could talk to them, adult to adult. Get their tips and secrets to sane living!
i agree again, vicki. and i don’t think you were being “too harsh”. while i have a live-and-let-live attitude about most things, i don’t have it about community health … for example, people smoking right next to others, drunk-driving, the “right” to own an assault weapon, going to work when sick … with covid, the flu or any other contagious disease. or someone playing music so loud or setting off firecrackers at midnight that disrupts people’s sleep, scares them and animals …. and i think it is a matter of respect, societal breakdowns and it is scary. :(
sorry your husband missed the sandwich opportunity, but better safe than sorry. and i bet you two prepare better food anyway. :)
on a brighter note (it’s 9 pm here so i need to change the subject), how are you, your husband and the pup? what’s your dog’s name and is the adoption official yet? :)
hope you are having a good night!
kathy
… you know, kathy, as I came back on here tonight to finish reading comments from Claudia’s other readers to her Tuesday post, you’re right about ‘respect’ … what happens when people don’t respect each other, or even time-honored institutions, even traditions … when does that lack of respect equate to indifference … what happens to us when indifference seeps in … really is pause for thought although we always have to have hope and believe in the power of ‘good’ …
… I dunno exactly what it IS with me, but when I’m out on a wide-open beach here in coastal Southern California, I find myself feeling more safe, and I’ll talk to people when normally I’m somewhat reclusive/shy by nature … but we DID escape to the beach Tuesday (to evade the heat/hot weather here; there were even patches of lovely-cool FOG on Tues evening) and we had the nicest conversations with a couple of different people (distanced of course, and out in indeed that big, open place with a lot of good sea air and breeze/light wind). Just have to remember that there are more good people than bad people, just living their lives as best as any of us can under current (and challenging) circumstances.
We saw one patient man assist his quite-elderly mother, getting her SLOWLY out of a car, then SLOWLY helping her walk on one of the more-even/semi-paved beach paths with the aid of her ‘walker’ device, which really touched my heart that she could still get out, see the gulls, breathe in clean air and look out at the waves today. (I’ve seen this kind of thing before at the beach, and it’s nice; otherwise, that dear older lady might be sitting inside a room and never getting outside.) Another family was frolicking with their little kids. Lots of people with their dogs. Quite a few evening fishermen, casting their lines from water’s edge as high tide began to recede although the water was chest-deep for them when barely wading out very far to untangle a line from a wad of seaweed or whatever (we had 8ft waves on Tues evening; it wasn’t a ‘quiet’ ocean!). Other folks firing up their outdoor grills for an evening picnic. No signs of the aforesaid ‘indifference’; just friendliness. Of course the setting is also a healthy, happy one, with relaxation and beauty … and we all benefit from that at any time, but especially in trying times.
Thanx for asking about our dog; not going to release his name because we’ll be changing it (it currently relates to guns and I just can’t have a dog whose name reflects something which could be construed as violent; just too sensitive to it right now, from everything we see on TV all the time lately about gun violence; I don’t know how anybody could give a dog such a negative name; he deserves a better name; for as active/energetic and [unfortunately] aggressive he can be [we’re working hard to deal with that aggression; again, he’s come a long way], the big guy is also very cuddly and sweet, so he needs a name which reflects the BETTER part of his big personality!).
Anyway, the rescue group isn’t pressuring us to adopt; they’re glad for his empty pen at the shelter so that they can put another needy dog in it; for now, they’re helping us out very willingly and graciously (we never asked; they offered) with the cost of his pricey prescription drugs which are necessary, per their veterinarian, for the dog’s long rehab out of panic/anxiety (they get an incredible discount with the drug cost whereas we wouldn’t on our own) but we provide everything else like food and gear (and a safe, balanced, loving home); the shelter wants a successful foster-to-adopt, they care about the animals very much! So, while I say we’ll adopt ‘soon’, and it’s feeling right for ‘soon’, I guess I don’t really know yet exactly how to define ‘soon’ (I probably spoke too soon!) other than that it’s coming; will be a win-win … for us, for the dog AND for the shelter.
I do think the routine/consistency (patience with him [hasn’t been easy!]) and love we provide him, along with a TON of exercise, is helping the dog to make small, favorable strides each week. It’s just common sense for any rescue/shelter dog who’s come from an UNfavorable/former life before he-she ever got to a shelter. At least they’re finally safe at a shelter, but it’s noisy, somebody different handles them every day; so it’s still traumatic for them; their little lives turned upside down. In our case, the big guy had to learn to trust us. Were we going to abandon him like the others before; give up on him, too? He’s had to make sure! And we have to allow him time. He needs the gift of time to succeed in his life.
(Like, when he met my friend for the first time on Tues, he was a lot better behaved [inside the car] than her own dog [who was out on the sidewalk, barking her head off at him]. We felt like proud parents, surprised by his good behavior! Just another example of how he has improved over the months, and why he deserves a chance at a happy-doggie life. [We were informed, by the way, that his likely age was 3 in July-2022, so we picked a date/day, and now he has an actual birthday we’ll celebrate each year!])
As for me and my husband, and thank you for asking, after being outside in all that beachy environment and driving in hot-‘furnace’ weather (in a car that has no air conditioning at the moment [long story!]), I came home Tuesday night and promptly fell asleep on the sofa! Which is why I now can’t go back to sleep in the 2am-hour!
I hope you are having a nice Weds when/if you read this!
thanks for sharing, vicki … especially your love (which includes patience, kindness and time at the beach …) with the dog. you have big hearts!
hope you have a nice, easy day!
kathy
xoxo
It’s very hot here and will continue to be for the next two weeks. Sigh.
Stay safe, Vicki.
I feel for all of you that are getting this heat wave. I know Phoenix is hot but we are used to our summers. We also just have to drive an hour and a half to get to cooler weather. I love, love, love Prescott! This is our monsoon season though so we can get a lot of dangerous storms with wind and lightening. We go outside under our patio to watch the rain though. Love that smell! Okay, I have to ask a question. What I read today was my Country Living. Is it me or is it getting smaller? and now it gets thrown in our driveway with plastic! How do you get yours? I just remember when I would get it I would sit for hours going through the whole thing. Oh well, times have changed. Still trying to escape reality because my MIL is still in the end days and it is so hard to see her suffer. We keep wishing she would go home peacefully. We honestly don’t know what is keeping her alive. She is 95 and skin and bones. Hoping your tests come out okay. Take care!
deb …
i am sad for you all to be going through that and will be praying for your mother-in-law, husband, you and the rest of your family. may you all have peace, comfort and trust in God’s presence and promises.
sending a hug (if okay),
kathy
oops … to your question about “country living” magazine …
no one in my family has subscribed to it for years so don’t know how it gets delivered here (but would guess in plastic as you described … though i would hope it would be put in the mailbox, not on a driveway like a newspaper!). i did go into a bookstore to look for Christmas presents last year and quickly looked for a magazine for myself, saw cl and thought i’d get it, but didn’t … as soon as i picked it up, it just didn’t seem worth the price. a shame, because i used to enjoy reading a tangible magazine, looking again and again at favorite images, sharing magazines with members of my family and how we’d put our initials on the covers when we were done with them. time changes things, i guess, just not always (in my opinion) for the better.
take good care of yourself!
kathy
It is definitely getting smaller. I don’t subscribe and I rarely buy it anymore. The last copy I purchased was the one with my egg cups in it.
Thinking of you and your family, Deb. I know this is a very difficult time for you. May you find peace, my friend.
Thinking of you.
Stay safe.
It’s hot here, too. Rick starts a 200-mile bike ride tomorrow — here to the lake over two days. It’s what he loves but boy, is it hot.
Thanks for the recommendation of the Herron books. I suspect you know that Slow Horses is soon to be an Apple Plus film with Kristin Scott Thomas and Gary Oldman. That’s a huge plus already!
Lay low!
I don’t know how Rick does it!
Yes, I know about the film, but you know about my refusal to watch anything when I already have the characters firmly in my imagination!
Stay safe, Jeanie.