A Hot Sense of Deja Vu

So, yesterday, I started to write a blog about how hot it was and how thankful I was to have air conditioning. Then I thought that would be a bit repetitive because I’ve blogged rather a lot about the heat lately.

I wrote my blog about my book instead.

This time, last year, my air conditioner died. I blogged about that quite a lot because it was one of the hotter parts of the year and I was not happy.

Well, lo and behold, my air conditioner must have sensed the anniversary of its death and subsequent resurrection because it died again last night.

I blame myself. Yesterday, it was very hot. We had a heat index of 106 degrees. When I got home from work, I wanted to water the garden with the hose. However, since I accidentally bought one of those sprinklers that goes forward and back, I end up watering part of the lawn as well. When I looked at the lawn, I realized it was quite long and it would attract even more pesky bugs when wet than it did already.

So, I mowed the lawn. My rationalization for this was that even though it was rather hot and very humid, it would be ok because I could go inside and refresh with a cold drink in the lovely cool air conditioning.

Silly Captain Monkeypants! What was I thinking!!

The first time I went inside between mowing the front lawn and the back, the air was working just fine. I went back outside. Once I was done mowing, I came inside but was rather hot and tired so it felt fine in the living room.

Then I went outside, took out the rubbish, watered the front garden and noticed that my air conditioner outside was not working. That wasn’t anything to worry about because I have the thermostat on auto so it kicks on and off depending on how the temperature needs to be regulated.

Then I went inside and noticed the air conditioning sounded like it was on. My air conditioner is old and thusly, very noisy. You know when it’s on. At this point, I suddenly realized it wasn’t as cool as it should have been. My heart sunk a little and I trudged outside. Sure enough, the outside fan was not turning and the air conditioner had stopped working.

Panicked, I pulled off the side of the unit and hit the ‘reset’ button the way the repairman had shown me last year. The compressor hummed but nothing else happened. I left it a little while and then hit the reset button again. The compressor tried to work but then it stopped.

Naturally, while I was doing all this activity, I was outside in the heat and got hot. Air conditioning would have been lovely. Alas, it was not to be. I called the repair company and left a message on their emergency line. Call me a baby but with that kind of heat index, air conditioning is almost vital. At least to me.

Someone from the company called me back and said they’d get someone out the next day. I was told it could be any time so I planned on going to work and running home when I was given an estimated time of arrival.

In the meantime, the pups and I spent an increasingly uncomfortable evening trying to stay cool. I put the fans in the windows but when there’s only hot air to blow around, it doesn’t provide much relief.

The dogs blamed me. I got glares and stares all night as they very obviously ‘sighed’ and attempted to sprawl on the lino floor which was cooler than the sofa and carpet.

We didn’t sleep much last night. It was too hot. I knew it would be. Just as I was getting ready for work, the lovely AC repairman called. He was on his way. It was the same nice man from last year. He was at my house by 8:10 a.m. and by 8:15 a.m., I knew what the problem was. The capacitor had blown. Apparently, that reset button I had actually saved me because it stopped the air conditioner from overheating and dying forever. While he was there, he replaced something else that he said would probably cause a problem fairly soon. I trusted Mr. Air Conditioning Fix It Man so I let him fix it.

The whole thing was done in less than an hour and a half. When I left for work, the house was cooling down and when I got home, it was blissfully cool.

The pups are happier now. So am I. I know that we humans are spoiled nowadays. Even thirty years ago, air conditioning was a luxury. I wonder how people survived. Then again, I think that temperatures are hotter these days than they used to be because of that whole greenhouse effect thing so maybe they didn’t need it.

Either way, I have it and I’m grateful for every bit of cool air that circulates my way. I think the pups are too. At least they’re not glaring any more.

Happy Friday!

Bugs...Bug Me...

It’s been hot and sticky for over a week now and we haven’t had any rain in ages. I finally got tired of going out to my tomatoes with a watering can and I broke down and bought a new hose and a sprinkler.

I’m curious to see how the sprinkler does. I’m more curious to see if the pups decide the sprinkler is a friend or an enemy. Since it’s going to be watering their favourite ‘hanging out and watching for squirrels’ spot in the garden, they’re either going to deliberately get wet or they’ll be sulky because they can’t follow their usual routine.

In all honesty, part of me is tempted to enjoy the sprinkler too. It’s so hot out there that whenever you’re out for more than two minutes, your clothes start sticking to you and you’re instantly sweating. It’d be nice to act like a kid and jump through the sprinklers. However, I’ll probably resist just because even though I shouldn’t, I do care what the neighbours think. This is most likely because it would probably involve me wearing a swimsuit and I’m not sure I want to inflict that on the neighbours. Thus, I’ll just be a responsible grown-up and just use the sprinklers for watering my vegetables.

The heat is making it hard to do much outside. It’s too hot to be pleasant and even if we do brave the humidity and heat and attempt to do something outside, there are these rather unpleasant little gnat things that seem to multiply by the second until you’re so tired of trying to brush them off that you end up running inside.

I’m not a fan of bugs anyway. I find them to be a huge nuisance. When I was younger, I used to visualize how nice it would be to go for picnics in meadows of flowers like you see in the movie. Or I’d visualize running down a meadow-hill like that girl at the beginning of “Little House on the Prairie”. Or running through a cornfield, letting the taller corn embrace me and change my perception of the world for a while.

Why I visualized these things, I can’t tell you. I have a weird way of thinking. If you read my blog, you probably know that. The fact is that I did picture these things.

However, the reality of it was never the same because of the stupid bugs. I have yet to find a place on earth where you can sit outside and have a picnic without having some buggy pest drive you a little crazy. It could be mosquitoes that bite and make life unpleasant. It could be spiders who don’t mean to be ominous but are anyway because, well, they’re spiders. It could be those pesky green flies that seem to thrive on vegetation and the pretty the landscape, the more irritating the green flies.

As for the “Little House on the Prairie”- I have yet to find a meadow without similar bug problems. Granted, when the weather is perfect, the bugs are slightly less prominent but try running through prairie-long grass without having a secret fear of ticks, chiggers and other nasty biting bugs.

And then there’s the cornfields. When my family moved to the U.S., we moved to a house in the country. There was corn on all sides of us. My brother and I decided to play in the cornfields. Then, after a few minutes, we realized between many of the rows of corn were spider webs. Inside the spiderwebs were rather terrifying looking spiders that made the experience suddenly far less fun and far more alarming.

Of course, I found out that the spiders were harmless and wouldn’t bite but, well, would you want to risk having a spider like that crawling on you?

Thus, I haven’t run through the corn since. Call me a chicken. Call me a wimp. It’s just that over the years, all of the pleasant, fun outdoor activities that seem so exciting in theory are never quite as exciting in reality because of the bugs.

I shouldn’t let them bother me but it’s hard not to, really. Last night, I went to a dinner party at a coworker’s and we attempted to sit outside. At first, in spite of the heat and humidity, it was pleasant. And then the bugs decided to join us. It was primarily these little black gnats. I’d kill one and three more would appear. We lit bug candles but that had no effect. In the end, when the flies joined in, we abandoned our outdoor gathering and fled inside.

So, I’m not a fan of bugs. I find them annoying. I’m sure there’s a greater purpose to them than to, well, ‘bug’ us. They probably do some good by at least providing a diet to frogs and things. However, it’s hard to see that when you’re outside and suddenly you’re covered by a layer of horrible, tiny biting gnats.

It’s one of the things in summer that I find the most annoying. However, since it comes with the territory, I’ve learned to accept it.

But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t bug me.

Ok, I’m done with the bad puns now.

Happy Tuesday!

Hot Days and The Politics of Childhood Friendship

It really is a hot one out there today. This morning, Mr. Weatherman said it was going to be about 95 degrees by 5 p.m. tonight but it would feel more like 100 degrees. He was right. It is a sauna out there at the moment. I’m a little amazed that he was right but, as with everything, if you try hard enough at something, eventually you are right about it once in a while.

I find super hot days like this change the vibe of a neighbourhood. Normally, when the weather is cool and manageable, my little ‘hood is full of activity. There are a lot of kids who walk home from playing baseball or basketball at the nearby community centre. There are parents fetching and driving their kids to sports, ballet and whatever activities the kids do. There is a buzz of mowers. There are people walking dogs, stopping to chat, jogging…you get the picture.

However, on hot days like this the neighborhood pretty much just stops. The lawns look dry and crispy and even those that desperately need to be mowed are ignored. There are fewer people thronging around and far more sitting on their stoops in lawn chairs, lazily watching the world. It’s like for a brief period, everything slows down.

I don’t mind it at all. I find it fascinating. People get up much earlier when they know it’s going to be super hot. When I drive to work at 7:50 a.m., there are a lot more dog-walkers and joggers than normal because they know later on it will be too hot to walk/jog.

When the heat hits later in the day, it’s hard to explain exactly how the vibe feels. The closest I can come is a scene in a movie where there has been a mass disaster that’s killed most of human life and only a rag-tag bag of survivors scuttle and hide in the buildings because, at night, the zombies come. While there are no zombies in my neighbourhood (that I know of, anyway), the deserted daytime feeling seems to be there. There is little life force outside- it’s too busy hiding inside in the sanctity of the air conditioning.

The pups and I tried to break this deserted feel last night and we went for a walk anyway since it was only 93 outside. It was still hot enough that Rory plonked herself down on the ground and decided she was too hot and tired to continue. This was about five minutes after we left the house. Normally, it takes at least ten minutes of walking.

We did run into a few brave souls who were trying to conquer the heat and work outside anyway. We met a new lady who lives in the pups favourite house- it’s got a lot of trees with squirrels and bunnies have often been sighted in the yard. She used to have dachshund so we had quite a chat. She used to have males and she told me a couple of horror stories about their viciousness that made me shudder a little because of what happened with Sausage. I do know that male dachshunds are known to be one of the more vicious breeds which is why I have females.

She was a nice lady though and we had a chat. She also told me it was quite ok if my dogs wanted to poop in her yard. I didn’t even have to clean it up. That was nice of her but I’m a firm believer in the scooping of the poop- leave no evidence behind.
We also met a rather nice, sad little boy named Raymond. He was riding his bike with a helmet on. Raymond is one of those kids you just know doesn’t have it easy. He’s a little heavyset for his age, had a slight lisp and has a wide eyed sweetness about him. Raymond asked me if I’d seen two boys on bikes. Given that Son of Dog Whisperer and his little friend had almost mowed us down on the other side of the block, I said I had seen them but I wasn’t sure if they were the same boys he was looking for.

When he told me their names, he confirmed that he was, in fact, looking for Son of Dog Whisperer and his friend. Apparently, Raymond was supposed to ride bikes with them but as soon as he’d gone to get his bike, they’d ridden off and ditched him. Just looking at him, I could see how hurt he was by this. He kept asking me where I’d seen them and I told him. They had been riding awfully fast so it was clear that for whatever reason, they didn’t want to play with Raymond.

Naturally, I felt horrible for the poor little boy. I think he is about eight or nine. He told me that he didn’t have many friends and how he thought he’d found some in Son of Dog Whisperer and his buddy. His lip quivered and my heart just went out to the poor boy. It’s been a few years since I was a kid but I remember times where I got ditched by friends or they basically ganged up and decided I wasn’t cool enough to hang out with. It’s a heavy feeling that just hangs over you and makes you feel unwanted.

There wasn’t much I could do for poor Raymond. He asked if I knew Son of Dog Whisperer and I told Raymond that he was my next door neighbour. I wasn’t sure of the politics of the friendship between Son of Dog Whisperer, his buddy and Raymond but I did ask Raymond if he wanted to ride his bike while I walked back home with the pups so I could show him where Son of Dog Whisperer lived. Raymond, lip quivering a little, was too proud to do that and I was pleased for him. Instead, he asked me that if I saw the other boys, I could please ask them to go back to Raymond’s house.

I didn’t see Son of Dog Whisperer and his friend so I couldn’t pass along the message when I took my poor, lazy, panting pups home. My guess is that if I had, the two boys would have cackled and said, “No Way.” Kids can be very cruel when they have a peer to back them up and it was quite obvious they were happy with just their own company.

My heart goes out to young Raymond. He’s the type of boy you know has a hard time making friends because he has a wee aura of neediness to him. Yet I bet he’d be a loyal friend to anyone who would let him. He also has an aura of sweetness and gentleness to him that the other two boys lack. It may sound strange and blame it on my need, as a writer, to watch and observe people. I’ve watched Dog Whisperer and his buddy and they’re a little wild- they have parents but their parents are too busy to pay much attention to what they do. This is why they can go bike riding, shoeless, shirtless around the neighbourhoods, occasionally veering into the road and always riding with determination. Raymond, on the other hand, seems well cared for- he might try to ride his bike ruthlessly without worrying about cars and such in order to keep up with his friends but, really, he’s very meticulously about crossing the street and being safe. That’s how he was last night when he talked to me. He was on the other side of the street and he looked both ways before crossing over.

I hope that Raymond finds some friends who appreciate him and won’t ditch him when they promise to play. It was hard to watch him walk off after giving me the message to deliver. His shoulders slumped and he walked with a very dejected air.

I know he’s just a strange neighbour kid but something about Raymond got to me. Maybe it was because he took me back briefly to some painful friend politics of my own childhood. Maybe it’s because no one wants to see a lonely kid. But, mostly, I think it’s because he seemed like such a sweet little boy and seeing those sad, hurt eyes made me just wish I could make Son of Dog Whisperer and his buddy change their minds and include Raymond.

But the world doesn’t work like that and I only have one side of the story. Besides, it does not do to meddle in the friendship politics of eight-year-old boys.

It still doesn’t stop me from hoping for good things for little Raymond anyway. Hopefully, the rest of the long, hot summer days will be a little kinder to him and he’ll find someone else to play with.

Although, hopefully, not all the days will be this hot. Especially as it’s not even really summer yet.

Happy Thursday!

Muggy Musings

Today is the first really hot day we’ve had in a very long time. Unfortunately, the heat is of the humid kind which means that the minute you walk outside, you feel as though you’re in a sauna.

I’m not a fan of humidity. Yesterday was a lovely spring day where it was warm but breezy and there was very little humidity to be found. Today, we’re in danger of storms so the humidity is piling up and making everything feel a little ominous.

It does feel stormy out there. I hope we get a giant storm, even though it means rain. I love to listen to them rage at night. Of course, the dogs don’t necessarily agree. Sookie will calmly snuggle up closer to me and hide under the covers whereas Rory will jerk awake, sit bolt upright at the first crash of thunder and then proceed to also get under the covers, usually sitting on Sookie in her rush to hide and ending up on top of my chest.

It’s quite hard to sleep like that though it is rather endearing. I’ve noticed that the dogs don’t seem to consider me much when it comes to sharing the bed. They definitely like to cuddle up to me but it’s usually in whatever position they find comfortable and it doesn’t matter if I find it comfortable. Often, I wake up to find that I have two dogs laying sprawled horizontally across the bed and I’m creeping closer and closer to the edge of the mattress.

Sometimes, one of the girls will push the other off the bed. We’ve had a couple of incidents in the night where Sookie has knocked Rory off or vice versa. I usually scoop the surprised pup back up on the bed where she sits in an embarrassed, indignant hunch until I lie back down . At this point, the offended dog will turn her back on me and move far away from me and the other pup. Of course, by morning, she’s back and curled up close.

Still, even with the occasional nocturnal Shuffling O’ the Dogs, I still am thankful that my pups are old enough to sleep through the night. My sister got a new puppy- it’s a peculiar looking thing with very long legs and a tiny body. It’s only nine weeks old which is the age at which I got Sookie and Rory. She’s going through crate training and getting up regularly to let her outside.

I’m glad those days are over for me. Many a night was I awoken by a frantic puppy that was licking me to wake me up because she REALLY needed to go outside. This was fine some times. They’d go out, do their business and we’d shuffle back to bed. On rainy nights, it wasn’t fun. For one thing, they didn’t like to go out in the rain so I’d have to go out to encourage them to go and give them a reward if they did and, secondly, we’d all go back to bed wet and soggy.

I do miss the early days of puppyhood. Like many things you see every day, I don’t realize how much the dogs have grown until I look back at puppy pictures. To me, they look the same. Then I look at photos and I see the little five pound babies who are now 14 lb adults.

They still act like puppies though. Last night, I watched them torment Dog Whisperer’s beasts who were driving me a little potty as I sat outside and tried to blog. My girls decided that since the beasts were already barking, they’d at least give them a reason to bark. Thus, Sookie proceeded to tear along the edge of the fence, get the beasts excited to the point where they started fighting and then she’d calmly break away and sit with Rory and watch.

Part of me was highly entertained and satisfied. Part of me felt a little bad that my dogs were just contributing to the normal racket that the stupid dogs provide. I’ve got to the point if I’m just outside sitting, I can ignore them. However, if I’m doing something like, say, shearing the long grass down by the fence and Dog Whisperer lets the dogs out, it annoys me because the dogs throw themselves right at the fence where I’m standing and growl at me. Then they bark. And bark. And bark. And since Dog Whisperer refuses to acknowledge the noise, I end up giving up.

I’ve mentioned it to Wife of Dog Whisperer who muttered something about bark collars and negative reinforcement but, so far, there’s no sign of the collar and the negative reinforcement seems to consist of a weak, “Fred, No!” from the back door. Occasionally Wife of Dog Whisperer will be more proactive but it’s simply not consistent enough for the dogs to grasp that it’s NEVER ok to act like a homicidal, maniacal barking fiend. Unfortunately, as I learned with Sookie and Rory, you have to keep doing something in order for the dogs to learn.

Still, for all their dog issues, at least my neighbours are nice. They loan broken lawnmowers and Wife of Dog Whisperer is nice to chat to when we both have time. Son of Dog Whisperer is a nice little boy even if he is a little…odd. He’s stopped staring at me so much and now talks to me. He often accidentally hits his ball in my garden but I figure my retrieval and return of the ball is penance for all the times my friends and I would do the same thing to our neighbours when we were kids.

Besides, walking around the neighbourhood with the girls in the evenings, I see that there are lots of houses with lots of yappy dogs so it’s not just me. Granted, I REALLY wish that strange dogs that aren’t on a leash would stop chasing us and making us flee but, well, it makes me more alert even if it is a little terrifying. It’s happened three times now and I really don’t like it. I feel like an idiot when I run away but when you have a full-sized German shepherd lunging at two terrified dachshunds with no weapon or defense, all you can do is run.

Although I think I am going to start carrying my little squirt bottle again. Just to be safe.

Ah well, at least life in my neighbourhood is never dull, even on hot and muggy days!

Happy Wednesday.

You Don't Know What You've Got....Until It's Gone...

So, it’s come to my attention after now whining in my last two blogs about my lack of air conditioning that I may be a wee bit spoiled.

After all, when I was growing up in the UK, we didn’t have air conditioning. I don’t think I even remember knowing what air conditioning was. During the English summer, in my area at least, we would have a few really hot days in the summer where it went up over 80. Of course, being a little island, that means it was 80 degrees with a lot of humidity. Mostly, though, summer days weren’t intolerable. We expected it to be warm but not too hot, most of the time, at least. Since we moved to the U.S., it seems global warming has affected the UK and they do have a lot more heat over there. My relatives and British friends are always talking about how hot it gets. I’m not sure what the status of air conditioning is over in the UK but I venture to guess it’s still not as prominent over there as it is here in the U.S.

In fact, my very first memory of arriving in the U.S. was in August. When we got off the plane, we were met with a wall of heat that seemed so thick, it was difficult to breathe. When we went into the airport, it was freezing. The air felt…weird. It took me a while to get used to air conditioning though it didn’t take too long for me to appreciate it. The house we moved into was an old farmhouse and it didn’t have air conditioning. In the summer, we sweated and roasted and would find ways to cool down- going to shopping malls, going to the pool, etc. The nights were hot and sticky. I would lie in my room, too hot to sleep and listen to the honk of the Canadian geese that were swimming in our neighbours ponds over the road. I remember those nights well. There was the sound of cicadas, of crickets, of the odd bird chirping, all intertwined with the honking of those geese.

When the sun rose and we’d get up the next morning, I remember getting up earlier than I did during less hot days. The mornings were cooler and I’d go outside to appreciate the fresher air than was in the house. As the day went on, the heat increased but there gets to a point in the house where it can’t get that much hotter- it’s just plain…hot.

After a few years of this, my dad caved and bought one of those window air conditioners. We’d gather in the living room where it was situated and breathe a sigh of relief. It did little for the hot nights, particularly for my sister, brother and I who all slept upstairs, but it was a pleasant relief in the evenings before bed.

Naturally, after I went to college, my parents had central air installed. For the summers I was home, it was a nice change from the hot nights. They also moved my bedroom downstairs and I could no longer hear the sound of the honking geese, nor any other night sounds since I now slept with the windows closed.

Ironically, nowadays, when I visit my parents, I stay in my first room- the upstairs one. The air conditioning sort of reaches up there but doesn’t keep it too cool so I use a fan. I also sleep with the window open and get to hear the sounds of the summer night again. I like that.

What my point comes down to is that I managed to survive years without air conditioning. Nowadays, if it breaks, I have a little whine and moan and act like it’s the end of the world. Granted, it did go out at the worst time- the night prior to taking the puppies in to get spayed and two days after when it was important to keep the pups comfortable- but…still. I acted like a prima donna, like it was my divine right to have working air conditioning.
Of course, my whining was probably influenced by the fact that I was covered with a layer of sweat, had two panting puppies at my feet and only warm, sultry air flowing through the house with no cooling, comfortable breeze to make it tolerable.

I’m obviously conflicted. I know it’s possible to live without air conditioning but since I’ve experienced life without it- both recently and in the past- I don’t want to live without it. This of course makes me sound a bit like an awful human being- after all, lots of people don’t have AC- the starving children in Africa, the third world countries and lots of people in Europe.

In my guilt at feeling like a spoiled whiner, I did some searching on the internet about how people lived without air conditioning. I came across a blog post by a lady who offered tips based on how she lives without air conditioning. She wants to save the money it costs over a summer to run the AC. Her tips included making sure you don’t go into any place that has AC: You don’t know what you’re missing until you experience it. Also, she doesn’t cook indoors but grills out every day, using picnic-style foods to feed her family. Also, the coolest room in the house is the living room so she and her kids camp out in the living room over the summer months.

Now, while I salute her attempts to save a few dollars, I can’t help wonder how her kids feel. My guess is that they go to their friends a lot. They can’t have much company in their house because they obviously have a bit of a muddle in their living room due to the ‘campout’ situation. Also, as a guest, it can’t be too comfortable in a humid, hot house. Also, while I’m quite fond of grilled foods, I couldn’t eat them everyday. There’s only so many sandwiches and salads you can eat before you start wanting a nice, non-grilled, homecooked meal

My guess is that when they get older, that lady’s kids are going to be the ones who crank their air conditioning up so it’s only 60 degrees in their houses. I’ve met a few of these people and when you find yourself wishing for winter woolies while visiting them in August…you know they HAD to have grown up without AC.

I suppose my point is that, as humans, once you get used to something, it’s hard to lose it. It can be a relationship, a pair of comfy socks, Cost Plus World Market (at least in this area), a chocolate bar you were craving, only to discover it’s a melted, inedible mess….the list is endless.

You just don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Especially when it’s air conditioning.
Happy Tuesday!

Dear Weather: Please Cool Down!

Last night, the weather reports said that today was likely to be the hottest day of the year so far. When I got up, my house was warm but not hot. Outside, at 6:10 a.m., it was already 72 degrees.
When I came home for lunch, I noticed that the house was beyond warm...it was hot. My air conditioning unit sounded like it was still running. Upon investigation, however, I discovered that, naturally, on the hottest day of the year so far, my outside air conditioning had stopped working. After some research on the internet this afternoon at work, I found out a few things I could try on the off-chance it was something minor.

So, when I got home, I checked to see if the circuit had tripped. Alas, it hadn't. I checked the circuit on the air conditioner itself. I don't think it's tripped. Since the furnace was still blowing the air out, it was easy to narrow down that it was the air-conditioning unit. So, realizing I probably had a big problem, I did the best thing I could think of at the time.

I called my dad.

My dad is rather good at telling me what he thinks is the problem. In this case, he was certain that my air conditioner was out of Freon and needed to be recharged. This would warrant a call to an air conditioning repair company. So, I hung up and made an appointment for tomorrow.

In the meantime, my house is nothing short of hot. My thermostat only goes up to 85 degrees and the needle is on the very edge of that. The puppies are panting and I am sweating. I made an emergency trip to Lowes to buy a couple of fans but even though they're in the window, there's really only warm air to blow around since it's just as hot outside.

Still, for a while there, it looked like we were going to have a storm and so I sat outside with the puppies. The wind started to blow and a heavenly breeze started up. I cooled down, hoping this would be a storm to cool the world down.

The storm, alas, did blow over. I took a cold shower but I'm still hot. I keep giving the puppies ice to chew but they're still hot. I think unless we have a lovely cooling storm, it's going to be a hot, sticky night in the Monkeypants household.

To top it all off, the puppies are getting spayed tomorrow. I'm a little nervous about this even though I had a neurotic-pet-parent consult with the vet last week and she assured me it would be a routine procedure and she'd take care of my puppies. I get to drop them off before work and pick them up afterwards. I'm hoping they'll be fine but since I'm neurotic and a worrier to begin with, the worst case scenerios keep popping into my mind.

I was hoping to have a nice relaxing evening with them but it's a little hard to relax when the mere act of sitting still and doing very little makes you sweaty. Hopefully when night falls, the air will cool and it would gently waft into the living room with the aid of two box fans.

Still, it's one of the side effects of being a homeowner, I suppose. It's been an expensive couple of months what with ceiling fans needing to be replaced, leaking faucets that lead to new sinks and now having to call the air conditioning repair people. But, into every life a little rain must fall although in Sookie, Rory and my case, no literal rain is falling and I rather wish it would. Instead, a watery sun is attempting to come out which is causing more heat on top of the already baking world.

Nevertheless, tomorrow is Friday. Hopefully, the AC will be fixed by tomorrow and the puppies can rest in a cool house after what I'm sure isn't going to be a pleasant day. If not, well, we'll just continue to sweat and hope that Mr. Fox 19 Stormtracker Weather is right when he says it will cool down.

Wish us luck!

Happy Friday, have a great weekend and stay cool!

Hot Days and Swimming Pools....

Short weeks at work are nice. It means that today is the middle of the week instead of only being Tuesday. It's shaping up to be one of those weeks where I just feel frustrated with my job and am starting to get the itch to look elsewhere again.

It's not that I don't like the work. I'm just frustrated with the politics. No matter what I do or what I say, I end up playing second fiddle to my coworker who seems to be able to do no wrong.

She mostly doesn't do wrong although she's a little bored at work at the moment. Thus, she goes to 'talk business' with her friends and disappears for hour-long stretches at a time. My boss doesn't notice. I know that sometimes she does talk shop but, mostly, she disappears and starts whispering with one of her friends.

I hate whispering in the office. I think it's quite unnecessary. There are enough locations throughout where people can go inside, shut the door and talk properly. Whispering incites gossip and I get fed up with that.

Still, it's not all bad. I've been busy lately which has made the days go fast. Also, it's been so hot outside that going to the office isn't so bad. It's very cool in our building on hot days where the heat index is above 100 degrees, it's nice to be in the air-conditioning, looking out on the hazy day.

It's so hot out there that it feels as there's no air moving at all. It feels like a classic summer day where all you want to do is lie on a raft in a swimming pool and float the day away. I've done that before and it's one of the pure joys of hot days. You lie on the raft, listening to the gentle lap of the water as it brushes the sides of the pool and the edges of the raft. Chances are, you got in the pool to get on the raft and so your swimsuit is wet and the last drips are evaporating on your skin. You start to get warm as you dry, the hot sun beating down on you and, just when it gets to be so hot that you're going to start sweating...plop! You roll into the pool and begin the whole process again.

When I was younger, my parents got us one of those inexpensive above-ground pools. It was somewhat flimsier than the more 'permanent' models but it held water and was deep enough for us to float. My younger brother and I were the primary users of the pool, playing and floating on a Little Mermaid raft that provided endless hours of amusement. Summers later, the pool began to leak and we got rid of it.

Sometimes, I think it would be nice to have one of those pools in my back yard now I have one of my own. Unfortunately, my back yard isn't nearly as big as my parents' and a pool would take up most of the grass. Also, I'm afraid if I did get one, the summer's day peace would be interrupted by the yapping of the Dog Whisperer's beasts.

The closest pool is just down the street at the community center. It requires a membership to use and, given that it's summer, its primary users are children. This means that it would be hard to peacefully float on a raft because if there's even enough room for a raft, it would probably be jostled and splashed by kids doing cannonballs and learning to swim.

The best floating I ever did was at a spa in California with one of my best friends. It's a wonderful place, that spa. You pay an entrance fee and you have access to their multiple pools which include saltwater, sulfer, hot springs and other spa-oriented pools and you can also get a mud treatment. My friend and I floated for hours in the pool that allows rafts, slowly getting punchier and sillier as we floated and we relaxed more than more. That was a hot summer day where it felt good to get wet and let the sun dry away the water.

Since I don't have a pool now, I can only close my eyes and imagine I'm floating. The closest I've come is accidentally soaking myself with the hose while trying to screw it to the tap a little tighter. The cold water felt good on my skin, even though it soaked my clothes. I let myself dry in the sun and the sensation was very nice and cooling. It's not a pool but it did the trick.

Sometimes, we just have to improvise. Especially on hot summer days.

Happy Thursday and stay cool!