Pneumonia Anyone?
Thank you, internet, for exactly expressing my thoughts. And a million other people’s thoughts. But seriously. I meant to post this last week when it was 90 degrees on Friday. And sweltering. Sunny. Hot. Humid. Then 40 degrees on Saturday. And raining. Thundering. Lightning. Hailing. Ice and tornadoes. Where else in the country can you run the risk of having both heatstroke and hypothermia within a 24 hour period? And potentially having all your fresh, green, spring, grass wither and turn brown today, and maybe have your house completely demolished tomorrow?
I only bring it up today, again, because yesterday was another rainy, humid day of varying temperatures. Sixty-ish. I’m told. Because I can’t remember. I was at work, and my work city doesn’t always reflect my home city. I drove in weather that ranged from so severe I could barely see through the downpour, onto a stretch of road so bone dry it looked like a wasteland. And I only commute 26 miles. Last night, cold. Well, chilly. And damp. It’s a peculiar wet-type feeling that’s not exactly uncomfortable but raises the hair on your arms. Not tropical but not mountainous either. And it was foggy. Like, ghost foggy. Scoop it up in a cup foggy. Things that jump out of the dark foggy. Say, like, dinosaurs running out from the forest. (Movie plug! We saw Jurassic World late last night. It was good. If you like dinosaurs or even think you might, just GO. It’s not a waste of your money. End of plug.) Our weather is so accommodating, to give us that slightly scary, element of surprise and effect while driving home. Then rain and thunderstorms predicted for morning, and all day long.
Actual wake up weather today: sunny and gorgeous. Like, perfect. It’s 80 degrees already. Blue sky, white fluffy clouds. Soft breeze. It’s ridiculous.
I’d love to have a point here, or a guide for predicting and planning for the weather, but it’s mostly just observation and a little ranting. Tonight we are going to a wedding. I have no idea what the outside will be like. That’s the beauty of my little corner of Illinois. We could go in hot and come out cold. It could rain. Or it might not. Glancing outside it looks like the weather is getting ready to shift right now. I mean, it has been a whole hour. I need to go get ready and stop this foolishness. Everyone stay safe and enjoy these days and nights as you can. Later.
So Much For Posting Every Day In September
This is my hummingbird friend that hung out with me all day yesterday. We have 4! This particular one kept sitting on the wire right over my head. It would even fly up to me when I would go in the house and then come back out. It looks like he/she is trying to wave or give me a hug. I have more and better shots. I took about 100+ pictures. I have no life. Well, I have a life, but no car. It’s being worked on, yet again. Nissan is NOT kidding when they say, “If your brake and battery lights come on at the same time, get it to a shop asap.” Lights came on; next day, no start. It’s the alternator. Thank you internet. We kind of already knew before the mechanic told us, so, it’s good and bad. Sometimes it’s beneficial to have that whole world of info at your fingertips. It doesn’t help us fix it or pay for it, but we were armed with knowledge! Knowledge is power! Anyway, I have to go to work now. The BF drove his motorcycle so I could take his car. The Maxima is supposed to be done today, but I am out of time. I will have to get it in the AM. And it’s hot hot hot. An attempt at record breaking heat is supposed to occur today, for September, in our area. It’s windy too. A smallish branch has already fallen from one of our last two trees standing. Let this be the end of trouble for this week. Everyone be careful out there.
Watch for motorcycles!!
Thank you!
Underwater Update
The last of the Kentucky shots. The waterproof case seems to have held up well. It got taken to the beach when the kids got back but the pictures were all out of the water. Sand, pebbles, waves, shoreline…the usual. Nothing shared at this point, but it always takes a few days for the complete phone empty and picture dump because my daughter literally takes hundreds at a time. And now that my son has his new camera, I mean phone, the kid-view pics should double. I saw some already, (pretty good stuff), but he hasn’t forwarded them. Plus, he’s not happy today because football camp started again and he has to go sweat in the hot and humid, dreary morning. The problems of high school at 15. I wish. I have to go to the eye doctor, take a shower, remove body hair, do the laundry, clean the house, go to work, pay the bills, cook dinners; Ho hum. Problems at 40. (Plus. Yes, plus. I know. I can almost hear my sister snorting on the 40 thing. I am over 40, but just barely, and I can still technically round down.) Here’s the kids. The girl is above. The boy is below. Later.
Quick Switch Mushroom Pic With Tree Trunk On The Side
I got down and dirty to get this pic for you. And now I have about 100 more all sprouting up in various parts of the grass. I guess it’s the new, fresh sod, baking under the extreme, sudden heat, showered by bursts of sporadic, torrential downpours and then steaming in the resulting, sweltering humidity, every few hours. The last few days have been severe weather alert central over here in the Midwest/Chicago area. In fact we have another one tonight. I actually have 4 weather advisories on my phone at this moment. More thunderstorms and flash flooding on the way with damaging winds and hail until 3 am now, according to the last alert that I just received twenty seconds ago. Free rain is good. More tree limbs down is bad. However, I was spared these last few times. Well, that’s not true. I did have another branch break off and fall into the yard about one minute after the storm showed up. No. That’s not exactly true either. What actually happened was, that we got the alert at 5:55 pm for 6 pm. At 6 pm the wind started blowing, fast and sudden just like the alert said. Gusts to 70mph is what the alert said. Damaging to trees and roofs. Find shelter in low lying buildings. Blah blah. The sky darkened. The trees swayed ominously. Another fierce wind, a loud crack, BOOM. We were standing in the backyard and watched the tree bend, heard the break, and observed a substantial limb slowly slip from the tree, cartwheel onto the neighbors power line, hang there for one, treacherous, breathless, millisecond, then topple over and onto the neighbors garage roof, where it slid very sloppily off the front, catching the gutter on the way down to the ground, where it landed on the neighbor’s driveway, intact and with a loud thud. The gutter was bent but not broken. As soon as the rain let up enough so that we could see to move, I sent my son out to hoist that limb into our yard and bend the gutter back up straight. And that’s how it ended up where it still currently sits. I am tired, tired, I say, of moving tree limbs all around our backyard. It can sit. This is the limb:
So naturally, I was complaining, and all geared up to bemoan fate and nature and all that, until I took a little drive out into the world to go get dinner. This is what happened to our neighbors down the street:
Need a better angle?
Yep. They win. I won’t complain any more about my backyard being the resting place for dying and destitute, wayward branches. At least I can pick them up. This was at 8pm. By 11pm, it was gone. All of it. Every stick, every branch, every limb. Right down to the base of the trunk. Gone. The earth was back in place and the ground was flat. No damage to the house either as far as I can tell. All hail the master of tree removal. I don’t know who did it for them but I am beyond impressed. Three hours, and you can’t even tell anything happened that night. And speaking of night, it’s getting late. Again. I need to end this. Despite the title, this was not quick. Or even a switch. Some bad weather, a picture of something that grows out of the ground, eh, whataya gonna do? One day something really post worthy is going to happen, and, I don’t know. I guess I’ll post it. Maybe I’ll write a story. Or a poem. I have them scattered around this site, ya know, very unorganized like. It’s a search thing. But until then, you get this. And this needs to find a way to end this. Like a band-aid. Quick and painless. Later.
Tempus Fugit
Those benches are not going to take pictures of themselves. Time flies. It’s late. I better get on home. It’s late. I been gone too long. It’s late. I need to stop typing song lyrics and get the kids up. I am an hour behind in my “schedule”. Time to make the boy mad! There’s another bench below. Last year was “Music”. I think this years theme is “Fairytales” or “Fairytale Stories”. We did a preview/drive-by yesterday. It’s hot out there too already. And feels humid. I predict a lot of complaining in my near future. Oh FYI, I switched to Latin. It’s my favorite language. Valē! See you later!
HOT DAMN!!
It is SIZZLING over here! 104 Degrees! Are you kidding me?? I cannot remember when it has been this hot. And it’s not just hot outside, it’s pretty damn smoking inside too.
I have been frantically answering questions in preparation for this big test you may have heard about, and I tend to get a little freaked out when I am not doing good, or good enough; but after a 200 question blitz this morning (and I guess this afternoon), I feel about 97% better that I have what it takes to finish this thing. So it’s break time for now. I have to eat and scrape the sweat and peeling skin off my body from the massive sunburn I gave myself last week when I brilliantly decided to go to the beach and bake for 5 hours without sunscreen. I know. So smart. So shamefully DUMB. At least I’ll be able to DX my own skin cancer. Not funny.
I’ll hit some review later tonight and get ready for another 200 Q’s tomorrow. I hope it’s HOT again! If you can’t go out you might as well stay in and study! Here’s a picture or two of the beach. It was nice. Started off clear as a bell then got cloudy. Super windy too that day. The riptides were giving my kids free entertainment.
Anyway…stay inside if you can, the sun is getting lower, but it’s still too hot to play. And if you have to go out, be careful, drink that water and avoid the angry, wild-eyed, super-sweaty people with mayhem on their minds. Later.
Running is NOT an option
I was behind this Jeep on the way home from school one day. Pretty cool I thought. And now I have a place to put it! I’m going to just have to face the fact that I cannot use my foot the way I want to. Since I broke that toe (or two) three weeks ago, the swelling and bruising have gone away but the pain remains. I’ve been walking on it and doing various other dumb things, like trying to bowl, droppingamotorcycleonit, and even trying to run. Fail. I hobbled out one fourth of a mile. Being generous. My son was walking faster than I could run. And the next day, forget it. I couldn’t even put my shoe back on and the top of my whole foot was kind of fat and swelly.
This is the first time in my life that running can not be my main form of exercise. Walking is really pushing it. One more reminder that I will not live forever. Suh-uh-ucks!
So I have to find a way to do cardio type, but stationary, working out. Preferably with no shoes. I have some Yoga X and some Kenpo I can do from the P90X workout system. And I have to say, Jillian Michaels Beginner dvd’s are pretty good. It’s something new I added to my page, What We Have In The House Right Now. (I’m trying to do this fabulous site and update all this old information.) Anyway, like I said a few days ago, we are trying to accomplish alot this summer. Body and Brains. Now that daily school is over, exercise needs to be the only option along with healthy eating. The weight is creeping up and so is my B/P. We weigh again tomorrow to see if any of our small changes this week have knocked out an ounce or pound or two. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy big. Remember, if you are doing it too this summer, anything the same or less is good as long as you are moving every day and trying to make the better choices.
Speaking of which. I need to get some water. It’s HOT over here! 96 degrees. I guess the heat is here to stay for awhile. I’m going to take that water and sit out in it for a bit. Sweat some of the gunk out.
Oh wait a second, Two and a Half Men is about to come on the TV. That reminds me of my favorite kind of water made by Skyy. Yes, I have seen them all, but that doesn’t make them any less funny or easier to watch with a big glass of. Of. Ummm. Liquid.
Later.
I want a refund!
One hundred degrees of blistering sunshine and heat stroke have been replaced by 70 degrees of overcast and drizzle. NOT that I am complaining. Too much.
My air conditioner is OFF. Money saved.
BF is at work. Rode his bike there because it’s so nice and dry today. Hmmm. I guess rain-riding experience is necessary. Still…
My kids are gone. They went to the beach. Again, because it was supposed to be nice and hot. They may or may not be in tornado conditions along the shores of Lake Michigan in Indiana. I don’t know. It’s probably not a good thing when you have to rely on Facebook for the status of your children. BUT, I do trust who they are with and it is just threat of rain right now. Apparently the super heat wave that rolled in down from the north last night and caused us all that trouble, swooped up all the hotness and carried it away to the east somewhere. Cause it sure ain’t here.
I, on the other hand, had many plans for this day of hot and alone. I did get up early. Check. I did shower, shave, hygiene, blah blah blah. Check. I did pay one bill. Check. I did do one load of laundry. Check. And this is where the happy story ends. I am at an impasse. I need to study, but I want to drink. I need to balance the checking account, but I want to drink. I need to finish the laundry, but…you get the idea. Just a little. Not drunk. Just for…fun? Because it is July 1, it’s Friday, and I have, truly, nothing to do today? I don’t need to drive anywhere. I wouldn’t anyway. And it’s not even hot! And that makes it all the better! Now I won’t get overly sweaty or tipsy too fast! Plus, I can still do that other stuff while drinking.
Then it’s settled. I am inviting my friend Jack over and we are going to BS thru the afternoon. Thank you sounding board/inner conscious/internet. However, I better get on that check book thing first. Numbers tend to go all loopy after a few hours of the sippy juice. Later.
Speaking of aches and pains….
I think I found the way to fix MY pain! Start small and go big or big to small, it doesn’t really matter. By the time you get done with all three you won’t care how many bones are broken in your body. Guaranteed.
Ha. Kidding! (not) I just wanted to put this pic somewhere. This is for my cuz.
Weather: GORGEOUS today! And yesterday and apparently it will be for the whole week! 100 by Friday!! Sunny and HOT!
Status of my personal aches and pains: Not too bad!! Joints are good. No fatigue. I can walk just fine (with the right foot wear). However, I put a bowling shoe on last week. It hurt. I have been trying to run. It hurt. I push through though, because that’s what we do.
On the bright side, with my new medicine (see above) it’s like I have NO limitations! Dr. PehPays magic elixir really works with very few side effects. In fact, as a bonus, since I started my prescription, I am now FUNNIER and I can SING!! Please feel free to contact me for the number of my nearest doctor if you’d like to try my new medication/health plan.
I gotta go, I’m late for my next dose. Adios!
Summer. All official like.
June 21. Longest day of the year and looking like it’s going to be gorgeous here in the Midwest/Chicago area. They say rain, but I don’t see it. Makes me want to get outside and run run run. Bruising on the foot has shifted to a mostly central location and my toes don’t hurt that bad.
Time to get up and get out. Band and bowling. Benches and bugs. Birds and Bruises. I could probably keep going, but you get the idea. I have alot of “B” stuff on here. How strange, but I think we’re going to do an outdoor theme. Better get on it, it’s going to be a long day.
just shy of pretty 