I’ve been getting out at 6 am to catch cooler temperatures: we HAD to get some pruning done. One thing with a yard with many trees and bushes and such—if you don’t tend them in spring (and we didn’t) it gets way worse by July.
I also managed NOT to kill myself, but it was close: we needed to cut some Virginia Creeper at the front retaining wall, and I’m the one who’s best with the weedwhacker—and atop the bed atop the wall, I lost my balance and fell, fortunately into a ‘burning bush’, not the 3′ drop down to the lava rock below. Unfortunately it was at a head-downward slant, so I’m yelling for Jane to help get me up: I’m tangled with the weedwhacker and a juniper next to the bush; and it hurt. Gotta watch where I put my feet.
That was a potentially far more painful one.
The tank is getting along: got the fishes ordered. It’ll take a while because they have to be quarantined for observation and treatment if they have anything.
Best of all Jane and I working together are finally beginning to bring some order to the upper house. The basement is a mess—we have SO much stuff inherited first from inheritances —all mixed with sentimental stuff, so it had to wait a little to get sorted. But it is time and it is getting done—complicated by a four-footed inheritance from Jane’s sister Lynn: Tanner, a Siamese who hates our other cats and now won’t tolerate Finity that we got to keep him company after his brother kitty died. Now we’ve got a basement cat, 3 ceiling cats, and it’s impossible to clean up the basement as we’d like due to Cat Wars….
But we’re making headway. And I’m not flinging myself off any walls. I’m resolved to be more cautious.
Well here in the UK it managed to get up to 14c today after a high on the weekend of 17.9c while friends in Europe are suffering from extreme heat. Hope you didn’t hurt too much after the dive into the plants. Cool thoughts to everyone in the heat.
You gotta watch your step in that front yard, you never know when a Stonehenge sized monolith might fall on you.
I’m over here in the Netherlands, attending the quadrennial Celtic Colloquium at the University of Utrecht and it’s been, by Massachusetts standards, down right cool. Nights have been in the 50s Fahrenheit and overcast/showery days in the high 60s and low 70s; quite a change from hot and humid Boston.
I’m staying, by the way, at the Youth Hostel in Hanneke’s home town just outside Utrecht — in Bunnik (alas, Hanneke doesn’t live here any more). She’s been (off line) incredibly helpful in orienting me and offering travel or advice. thanks, Hanneke!
The Bunnik Stayokay (Dutch Youth Hostel) is a lovely, old country estate with a small moat around it off the immediately (like 10 feet away) small, lazy river. It’s surrounded by farms and what I think is a nature/wildlife preserve. May I recommend Bunnik to all!
Here in Las Vegas, the highs of the day for July have been between 102 and 116F while the lows have been between 81 and 99F. We stay indoors for the most part. (I mow the lawn once a week at about 7:00 AM.) It’ll be about 113F this afternoon.
It’s very hot, humid, and somehow also dry in Texas and I had the power go out about 2 hours today along with the rest of the neighborhood and the house got up to 82ºF (27.7ºC) before things started to right itself.
I’m going to bite the bullet and get an estimate on a sprinkler system. Not because I want lush grass or water all the time, but because I’m pretty sure the last couple of years my foundation is starting to be up to no good due to the soil quality and dryness and the soaker hoses just aren’t holding up more than half a season. I’ve redone those three times to repeat fails. My neighbour had sprinklers recently installed and just runs them briefly twice a week and their soil isn’t cracked like mine.
We’ve been having what I call “raisin weather” here in the flatlands of the Tx panhandle — 100-107 F at like 7-25% humidity (You’re a grape til you walk outside). Then we’ll have a ferocious thunderboomer with lots of lightning and window-rattling thunder, high winds, etc. and it will be like a steam bath for a couple of days (50-60% humidity)(I hear you coasties sniggering!) Forecast is for 90’s all week, but only cooling down into the 70’s at night.
I’ve been having more trouble with my hands, twitches in the fingers and muscle cramps if I use the muscle that moves my thumb sideways toward my hand (like you do when you hold a book and hold the pages open with your thumb). And I’ll get these “lockup” cramps where both the extensors and the flexors cramp and lock my fingers up. I’ve been doing chiropractic for my neck (C2 is cattywompus from an old injury) which has greatly helped the left neck and shoulder pain, and I don’t think this is related to that. Could be low magnesium as I take a proton pump inhibitor (Pepcid) chronically for a hiatal hernia, which can cause low magnesium. Hasn’t affected my knitting, though. Currently working on a pair of baby booties on 2.25 mm needles. The new glasses help a lot. (20/50 left eye, “What chart?” right eye.)
Fortunately, a severe lack of space has meant I’m buying almost all books in ebook format anymore and I can set my Kindle on a table in a little stand I have, so I don’t have to deal with holding anything to read a book. I’m down to three bookcases now. Only the books I can’t bear to part with — like books that are out of print — 3-1/2 shelves of which are CJ’s including every book of hers I can get my little hot hands on. Eagerly awaiting the next Foreigner book.
The Netherlands sound fun, Raesean. I would love to travel, but have to stay put as I am POA for my mom and she will be 99 this Sept. She’ll make 100 at the rate she’s going.
The “pitfalls” of yard work sound hairy, CJ. Please be careful. Hopefully you can get the yard whipped back into shape without it whipping you out of shape too badly!
Here in L.A. it’s finally cooled off so it’s below 80 inside when I wake up.The low-humidity season here is the “rainy season”…
CJ, take care of yourself. We don’t want you to have another bout of writing silence.
Arizona temps have been close to inferno hot. Fortunately, we live at 4700 ft elevation so our temps have been in the 90s and low 100s F with night times in the 70s. ReadyGuy and I have had to leave our comparative paradise every weekday for his cancer treatments in Tucson (10 degrees hotter). He’s finished half of his treatments so we should be finished by the end of August. Normally I’d be hoping for monsoon rains to lower temps, provide cloud cover, and replenish the aquifers, but driving 160 miles each day would be downright scary in the monsoon cloudbursts and possible flash flooding.
All of CJ’s associates need to take care of yourselves.
Ready, glad to hear ReadyGuy can perhaps see the end of this ordeal. Hugs and wishes for cooler temperatures to both of you!
I can attest after cancer treatment it takes a while to get the brain-fog subdued. I heartily recommend an Oculus — Meta Quest— whatever they call it now: with the Supernatural app (a paid, but oh so worth it app)— you’re swatting balloons, black and white, with the appropriate bats, and doing it to music—and it is mental exercise as well as physical, because there are patterns—and they switch them on you. It’s fast, it’s do-able in a 6′ circle of space, and it will raise a sweat. You can do it full body or fuller body (they add knee strikes) OR do it seated (no rotation and limited reach… whatever. You set it. And you will sweat. And wake up. 😉 It’s helped me immensely—the cancer followed by two hip replacements and a whole lot of anaesthesia. Hope he dodges the neuropathy thing—but that too, if he starts feeling sweaty fingertips or tingling, he should tell the oncologist—there are some things they can do. I’ve got it fairly mild, and it’s just one of those things that you ignore. Hugs and best wishes, whatever!