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This is the time of year when all the days start running together. Can't remember what I did 3 days ago, don't remember what day this is, need a calendar, a note on the fridge, and notes in my purse to remind me what needs to be done day to day.
I do remember that for the past week, a lot of little tasks have been accomplished. "Little things mean a lot...." so the song goes, as do the days. Housecleaning, to be sure; clean the coffee pot, clean the bottom of the fridge, weedwhacked, pulled the weeds around the pool, re-glued the tiles on the kitchen wall that came loose - due to the high humidity last week, washed the fingerless mitts that were finished a couple weeks ago, filed daughter's paperwork, spinning a couple hours each morning, do some knitting. And round and round it goes.
BH went fishing on Monday, so I took advantage of the time and cleaned the bathroom, straightened up the house, did a couple loads of laundry, paid the bills, wrapped and boxed a gift for grandson, went to the post office, the bank and the grocery store.
Tuesday afternoon went to daughter's, stayed overnight, took her shopping yesterday for an outfit and new shoes for the wedding next Saturday. While at her apartment, I cleaned her A/C filter, fixed her glasses (the screw came loose, and the lens fell out). We also went and got a few groceries, so I put those away for her, fixed dinner for us, did the dishes, went through her mail and took what needs to be filed and responded to. She treated me to lunch while we were out shopping. Had a nice time; got everything accomplished.
Today is a "freebie". I'm just going to putz around. I do have to do some serious grocery shopping and plan menus for the 2 days my sister and friend will be here (Thursday and Friday next week). Gotta figure out when to put that on the list. I do have to write out 3 birthday cards and get them in the mail today.
Gotta go to a graduation party on Saturday.
Wedding is Aug. 6; driving to the Cities on Saturday morning, picking up daughter on the way; staying overnight at the hotel; visiting with family on Sunday at my brother's; Monday, drive back to daughter's and take her for a doctor's appointment. Did I mention she lives and hour from us? An hour there, an hour back home. The oil corporations are very happy.
The weekend of the 20th, back to the Cities to help son and fiance move to their new house. Did I mention that's a 3 hour drive for us - one way? Cha-Ching!! I'm toying with the idea of preparing a supper and dessert to take down there for us all. We'll see........
I think we're free after that. No more commitments. That might change after daughter's doctor appointment, we'll see.
Looking soooo forward to Labor Day weekend. Then it's all over. Summer is done. It'll be time to hunker down for the Fall and upcoming Winter. My favorite time of year. All the tourists are gone from our small resort town; I can finally go to the grocery store on the weekend without spending half the day looking for a parking space and waiting in long lines to check out. Kids are back in school, people are back to their regular routines. Ohh, Happy Day!!
I feel like I'm forgetting something. There must be something else coming up over the next month. I gotta go check my lists.
Before I get started on this topic, I want to thank everyone for their comments to the blogs. It's greatly appreciated, gals; nice to know you're being read - I try to read about 40 posts every day and comment when I can. Sure hope you gals get out of the heat very soon - it's not good; not good for anyone!
Anywho, we were duped; tricked; lied to. Or someone doesn't know what the hell their talking about. The heat wave didn't end Thursday. It proceeded onto yesterday. 89 degrees; 60% humidity. Ok. Not sweltering. But it was still more heat than expected. A/Cs and all 7 fans running full blast. BH cutting the grass - 6 hours. Sweat pouring off him like a slow running faucet. He came in the house about every hour for a glass of ice tea and put his face into the A/C. The poor guy. I felt so bad for him. Told him to do 1/2 and let the rest go til Sunday. No. He wants to get it done. He's stubborn that way.
Not nice, weather guys! Not funny. Not professional. Or did the weather gods pull a fast one on you? In that case --- never mind.
Ahhh, but today --- it is 60 at 10:00am. We had a bad thunderstorm go through about 7:00am. Still looks like it could return at any time. Temps are only supposed to be in the mid 70's. There's a cool breeze blowing in every direction. Hang on Judy and Heather. It'll be coming your way soon (God, I hope so!).
So yesterday, while BH was killing himself outside, I was putzing around in the house. Wash the tops of the kitchen cabinets and the kotchki's; cleaned the kitchen exhaust fan; cleaned the whatchamacallits on the front/bottom of the fridge. You know. The fins that collect all the dust. Stripped our bed down, washed the mattress cover, hung it outside (never thinking I would eventually have to go back outside to retrieve it!); changed out the blanket; folded a load of wash, did the dishes. "What's for supper?" asks BH. "Ehhhh, Dairy Queen" says I.
Nothing today because I'm definitely anticipating more rain and wind. Tomorrow, weedwhacking and pulling the rhubarb. Maybe more laundry. Hang the sheets outside. It's supposed to be in the 70's!!
Caution: the weather guy is saying that the heat and humidity will be returning by the middle of next week and into next weekend. OMG! Somebody BETTER be pulling our leg!!
The horrible, sent-from-hell heat wave has finally broke! I felt like a new woman today! I actually cleaned the house - and really cleaned; did laundry, used the dryer; the A/C and fans were all off, windows were opened! BH went fishing!
It did get a bit warm in the afternoon, and I did have to turn on the fans and A/C about 11:30am. But the mugginess was at a minimum; temp got to about 85. We probably would've survived without the cooling machines, but I'm a bit paranoid right now. Any time it's over 75 degrees, they're all going on!
We had a quick thunderstorm go through about an hour ago. It left us with a wonderful cool breeze coming through the windows! Ahhh, to sleep; perchance to dream..........
Our work is cut out for us tomorrow. Since the "blast furnace" weather with the humidity that made the grass grow even faster than 3 days of rain, BH will be taking care of that. And then there's weedwhacking - my job. A few more things to do in the house too.
I can't wait for this weekend. We're supposed to have highs in the 60's!! The 60's!! Oh, visions of Fall!! I pray that this last week and some doesn't rear it's ugly head in August.
I need cool. Help. I can't stand this heat and humidity another day. I told BH if we wanted this kind of weather, we would've moved down south! This is Minnesota, for God's sake! You know, -60 in the winter; 8 feet of snow on the ground; not 110 degrees with 100% humidity and only dropping to 80 degrees at night. This is insane! Who lives like this?! Who wants to?! The weather people keep saying it's more humid here than in the Amazon jungle. OMG. Bring on November ----- please!
You can't cook in this weather. Even using the microwave makes you feel like expiring from heat exhaustion. Can't clean the house; just getting up to go to the bathroom causes sweat to run from every pore in your body. Can't do laundry. For sure I don't want to hang it outside to dry (would it even dry in 100% humidity?? I think not.) and can't use the clothes dryer with the A/C running - trips the circuits. (Shades of "Green Acres" -- you know, Lisa had to unplug the coffee pot to plug in the toaster....).
Just for the record - and any meteorologists out there - BH tells me if it WAS 100% humidity in the house, it would be raining in here. Yeah.....well........
So we will go in the pool this afternoon for a couple of hours. That helps a lot.
Have homemade subs for supper (gotta get to the store first thing and pick up a couple of items), drink gallons of water, and keep the ice pack on my body, moving it from one part to another.
And praying. Lots of praying. This is supposed to be the end of MN. tropical weather for a while. Tomorrow promises to be better. And through the weekend. I gotta go light some candles and say a novena. Oh wait......candles=heat. Maybe I'll just turn on all the night lights.
Son came up from Cities; he and BH left for fishing about 4:45am. With instructions to be home at 1:00pm!! We are in a heat/humidity warning for the next 5 days or so. In the Cities, they say the heat index could be 112 degrees. We up here in the northland could hit 100. Well, anyway, we'll see who cries "uncle" and comes rolling home before they get fried!! Men!!
It is now 8:00am. I spun for about an hour; boiled pasta for pasta salad; changed bed linens; cut my hair; took a shower; cleaned the bathroom; dumped water from the dreaded A/C; dumped water from the dehumidifier; put the salad together; did the dishes and ran the electric sweeper through the house. Not bad, eh?? Of course, I'll probably pass out about 11:00am. hehehe.
That's if grandson doesn't get dropped off here by his mom. I told her Thursday that if she works today, he can come spend the day here.
Oh yeah, and I have ROCK N ROLL on the radio!! As loud as I want it! Ahhh, it's good to be single!! Even if it's just for a few hours. A Great Day!
For supper? Pasta salad, hot dogs on the grill and grilled corn on the cob. I didn't plan anything for dessert; maybe we'll sit by the campfire and drink a few beers tonight.
Right now, it's overcast; looks like rain any minute. But the humidity is up there; the kind that takes your breathe away. Nice and cool in the house though. Gotta enjoy it while I can; if the sun comes out, it's all over.
I started back on the shawl yesterday; now that the black is spun into yarn. 2 more pattern repeats and it'll be done. This pattern does go really fast --- if you don't run out of yarn in the middle of it!
Well, I'm going back to spinning for a while. Then --- who knows. I can do whatever I fancy; I'm free; I'm single. For a few hours. Ya gotta take what you can get, when you can get it!
You all have a great weekend. Stay cool. (All spinners are cool!)
The birthday party, that is. Everything turned out great; everyone had a wonderful weekend. Only the weather was a problem --- super hot and very, very humid. The "I can't breathe" kind of humid. But we all survived. Half the crowd left at 4:30pm Sunday; the other half at 5:30.
And BH was sooo happy!! He thanked everyone over and over for coming and thanked me many, many times for the party. And he didn't want any celebration for his birthday!! Hehehehe.
Monday, spent the day cleaning up and laundry. Tuesday, spent the day tearing down, stripping down beds, laundry, errands, bills, filing, and re-configuring the fridge by moving leftovers into smaller containers.
I also managed to strip the blue SW merino roving, so now I have a whole basket of it to spin. To be plied with the light blue regular merino. At a later date. Much later.
Today is cleaning up the front yards; we had straight line winds on Sunday night. The yards are littered with tree branches everywhere. Then some pool maintainence and possibly clean out the van. We plan on going camping next week. Don't know where yet. It won't be a State park because ---- the state is SHUTDOWN!! 13th day? something like that.
Anywho, as you may recall, the van is loaded with all the gear we had to extricate from the camper to make more sleeping room over the weekend. It all was put in there willy-nilly. Now needs to be taken out, sorted and repacked.
Today is also supposed to be our last cool day (yesterday was, too). Then the heat and humidity are moving in again. The weather guy said it looks like it could last until the end of the month. OMG! I turned to BH and said "ehhh, maybe we better re-think the camping trip". No response. So I guess we're going. I may need to remind him that heat and me do not get along. I turn into the camper from hell. He might want to re-think this trip.
Besides the onset of the heat and humidity, there is also the issue of Social Security checks for August. Have you heard? The President, in an interview Monday, says that unless congress can agree to a budget next week, he cannot guarantee that recipients will receive their August SS checks. Oh yeah! People better get off their duffs and start calling and writing their congresspeople. Communities should be reserving the buses right now; and protest marches in every town should be forming.
Are you frickin' kidding me?? Millions of elderly and disabled will not get their money because of these freakin' idiots??? I DON'T THINK SO!!!
All I can say is anyone who votes these assholes back into office needs to be put away for their own protection -- as well as the general population's. Both parties need to be thrown out. Start over. Try something different. Could it get any worse? Ya know, there's a saying. "When you've dug a hole too deep to get out of, stop digging!" Yes, and let's all throw the dirt back onto these morons and bury them!!
Sorry for the rant. But anyone who is on Social Security should sit up and take note. Pay attention, people. They mean to do us serious hurt!
It's BH's 75th birthday today. It's 6:45am and he's still sleeping. I'm patiently waiting for him to wake up so that the tornado of activity can start. Vacuuming, a little dusting, changing bed linens, marinating the ribs, finishing touches on the cake, hauling over the coolers for the beer and the air mattress for guests, finish setting up the camper, get the rolls out of the freezer (better do that now or else....), hang pictures son's fiance drew for us and shower ---- definitely shower.
And of course, as the weatherman predicted, it's raining. Sprinkling, actually. There is word that it will only be a morning thing with sun brightening the day until early evening. Then more rain. Of course. Why not. Crap.
My stomach has been upside down over the past few days with all the preparations, anticipation and anxiety. I'm thinking a few beers later will help calm it down. I KNOW a few beers will help. It's much too early right now, so I'll have to hold it together til at least noon. Never want it to be said that I'm a morning drinker!!
BH is going to pick up daughter and son, so that'll give me 2 1/2 hours to fly through all the things that need to be done. Somehow it's always easier and faster without someone hanging around the house.
Son will be staying the night. That's one extra overnighter not planned. Crap. A little more anxiety.
Well, here's hoping the skies clear, the sun shines brightly for most of the day, the kids from the Cities make it up here early enough to have a great time, and that everybody goes home tomorrow early enough so BH and I can collapse and have a quiet evening.
Wish us luck!!
Two more festivaties to go........then, hopefully, the rest of the summer will be ours! mmmmwwwahhhhha.
Shower, over. Daughter's trip for a checkup at Mayo, done. BH's birthday shibang this weekend; niece's wedding in 3 weeks.
Got the camper cleaned out, vacuumed and scrubbed. Ready for guests. It didn't take as long as I thought. But then again, I always imagine that a chore I absolutely hate the thoughts of doing are going to take forever! Hence, it gets put off as long as possible.
Tomorrow is the dentist, then grocery shopping for the big weekend. Today will be housecleaning - another chore that keeps getting pushed back. But now my back's against the wall - so ............
We have plans. A camping trip week after next. Where? Who knows. We can't get into State parks because......the State is shut down!! No budget was passed. So, we'll have to dig out the KOA brochure. Or go to Wisconsin. Seems Wisconsin got a LOT of MN citizens' money over the holiday weekend.
We do need to get away for a bit. We're also planning a few more camping trips in August, after the wedding. As we were sitting on the deck the other night, talking about our trip, daughter relayed this insight: " You guys have it so peaceful and quiet here. It's so pretty and relaxing, and yet you want to leave here and go --- camping?!" We all laughed. BH and I have always said we feel like we have our own private campground here. And yet..........ah, the grass is always greener.......
Before we take off on this wonderful adventure, we have to clean out the van. Because in order to clean the camper, we put all the camping gear in the van. Willey Nilley. "Just throw it in there; we'll sort it out later" was the order of the day. Mostly because the weather was too hot to sort, repack and rearrange and because I had to make this as quick and easy as possible given BH's rant about how he doesn't "know why you have to take all the stuff out of there only to put it back again". Best not to make a big deal out of it!
So far, there's rain in the forecast for this coming weekend. Doesn't it figure?! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the weather pattern will keep moving forward a day or two. Please, please!! There can't be rain with a house full of people including 2 small children, and a party in the works.
To keep my sanity, I've been spinning and knitting as much as possible. Finally got the white beret w/beads done and almost the matching second fingerless mitt. There are about 8 coils of the blue merino to be spun. Moving forward.......
I do believe we finally got the new A/C figured out and working!!! Finally got about 2 quarts of water dumped out of it when the "Full" light comes on and we cut about 8" of the exhaust hose off. Making it shorter (as suggested in the manual....who knew?!) means a straighter hose; the hot air flows out much better, therefore, less condensation, means the tank doesn't fill up as quickly.
Hooray!!!! I still hate the damn thing, though. It's the stupidest design I ever saw. Told BH it obviously was designed by a MAN.
Manual: "Keep the exhaust hose as straight as possible; no kinks or bends".
HELLO: The exhaust connection sits 3" above the floor. I don't know anyone who has windows that go to the floor!
Manual: "To empty the tank, place a pan 1 1/2" deep under the drain plug. Do not move or tip the unit while draining water."
HELLO: The drain plug is 1/2" from the floor. Does anyone have a pan that has sides less than 1/2" deep?? So it is necessary to pick the damn unit up, tip it backwards to get the water to drain out. This needs to be done 3 times to totally empty it. Meanwhile, there is water pouring out from every corner on the bottom. Large bath towels needed to wipe up the water; and my carpet gets soaked for about 6". @@##%%%&&^@!!!!
Enough, already. I gotta get moving or nothing will get done today. "Back against the wall"..........and the wall is pushing back!!
