MOSTLY NORMAL
As you know, we do not publish 'Casa-de-Terrible' on a regular basis. We greatly admire those that do, such as www.sue-feathersandflowers.blogspot.com - that takes a lot of work. Even more so to routinely change the background with new photos and such; what a great blog. But our newsletter comes out whenever the mood strikes the muse and the editor gets down to the business of refining her work and adding photos if needed (none this time). Sometimes a week or more can elapse between the first words and the actual publication. Such is the case with the first part of Mrs.T's story. At this moment the weather is about normal. In fact we just had a cold snap and the furnace ran overnight. We also have colds, but that is a separate issue.
As with much of the country we have had an unusual spring and summer. May and June were about the wettest we have seen for a long time. But after Independence Day we had scarcely a drop until Labor Day – two parched months. And we had a couple of really hot spells – R writes about the second one below. We did run the a/c for the first heat wave while Rita was here, but just the fans for the second which was shorter and has ended. September will probably go down as another record hot month. On to the story:
It has been a long hot summer. It has been so hot that the weeds don't grow. It has been so hot that.my fish have started taking walking lessons. I had to get 4 loads of water for my pond and if there is no rain soon I must get some more. (The rains came. -dt) It is so hot that my husband actually turned on the air conditioner. No, I am hallucinating due to heat frustration; he did not do that. (Yes, I did – for the first heat wave. –dt) It is so hot that I have had to subsist on Moose Tracks ice cream in order to keep my temperature down. It is so hot that I climbed into the hot tub to cool down. It is so hot that Rush Limbaugh said he now believes in global warming and climate change. (I doubt that. –dt) It is so hot that I think our next trip will be to the North Pole if it hasn't melted. (Actually it is to Florida for my nephew's wedding. –dt) It is so hot that when I have a hot flash I feel cooler. Even Matt the WHIZ weatherperson says that this summer has been significantly hotter than normal.
In order to save our energy and stay cool Dan and I have mostly lolled about, he languidly tapping a key or two on his computer and I trying to decide if it is worth the effort to turn a page on the fantasy novel I am trying to read. There have been a few significant events in the last couple of months. We traveled to Georgia visiting both my sisters and saying goodbye to my brother-in-law who, alas, was finally conquered by cancer. We also saw numerous nieces and nephews and great-nieces and -nephews whom I could not quite keep track of.
My sister Rita came back with us (We had driven to Georgia. –dt) to visit our home in Ohio which she had never seen because she had to work. But now she is retired and she can visit anytime. Whoopee!! (Rita, we are always delighted to have you. –dt) Dan claims I act a little crazy when I am with Rita. (Let's say zany. –dt) Anyway after a too short stay Rita returned to Idaho where she mostly plans on spoiling her grandchildren between other projects too numerous to mention. She has decided that being retired might be a lot of fun after all.
There was one thing I noticed when Rita was visiting, she had purple underwear. (Why was I not privy to this information at the time??. –dt) Purple is my favorite color. Buying colored underwear is, I admit, a waste - after all who sees it. (At least one person. –dt) But purple. Sigh.
There had always been a little competition between us three sisters. When we played as children Ruth was the Mother, Rita was the Father, and I was the child. If we played 'Doctor', Ruth was the Doctor, Rita was the Nurse, and I was the patient. When we played 'School' Ruth was the teacher, Rita was the Principal and I was the bad child. When we played 'Church' Ruth was the song leader, Rita was the preacher and I was the congregation. Do you see a pattern here? This more or less continued when we went to real school. Ruth was the perfect diligent student. Rita was a good student but also popular, fashionable, and had a good time. I muddled through wearing hand-me-downs. But no longer. I am as good as they are although perhaps a bit eccentric.
But let's be honest - I was envious. I wanted purple panties. Well why not? I got out my fat lady catalogs to order some. Unfortunately all the other fat ladies of my size wanted them too and they were sold out. Life is unfair. (Dan had comments but I deleted them rt) (All I said was that Rita must have had a matching purple bra because Mrs.T has been complaining that none of those are available in her size either. –dt)
Since I had the dislocated arm last winter I have been unable to do a lot of my YOGA exercises. However I am working at them and am slowly improving. For example I am still unable to do downward facing dog but have modified it until I can do something which might be called downward facing lizard. Sigh. Well we do what we can.
One bright spot in our hot sunny days has been my riding lessons. I have slowly gotten less wobbly and more confident on and off the horses. I can just about saddle and bridle one now. When both the horse and I are having a good day we can wander about looking at wildflowers and eating them. Last week Tori and I went riding at The Wilds. It was a break for Tori because she did not have to watch me all the time to see what strange thing I would do next. It was a break for me because my horse Barney was extremely lethargic. And Barney, well it might not have been a break for him, but he certainly did not overexert himself. Tori and I rode on short fat horses called Haflingers. Tori had called ahead and asked for an easy horse for me. There were four of us. First came the lead rider and then Tori; they were riding along talking about horses. Then came Barney and I. Barney was plodding along as slowly as it was possible to go without coming to a complete stop. Then came the end rider. Naturally the first two got ahead and had to wait for us every few minutes. "Should I make Barney go faster?" I asked the end rider. "Good luck with that," she replied. "Barney has two speeds, slow and stop." So at this point I relaxed and enjoyed the ride, looking at birds and wildflowers - just Barney and I ambling along. I think the end rider was a little bored, so telling me not to let Barney stop to eat, she rode up to join the other two. When it was over they told me I had done well not letting Barney stop to eat which evidently he often does. I had a very good time, and it was easy to get off Barney because he was rather close to the ground.
Some housekeeping is in order. First, many of you may have received some spurious emails supposedly from this blog or directly from my email. I apologize but have no idea when or how I was 'hacked'. I hope you were not inconvenienced and I certainly hope it does not happen again. But no guarantees. Just delete those that seem suspicious.
Second, please let me know if your email changes. Of course if it has, you probably are not seeing this anyways. You are always welcome to share are newsletter and we welcome new subscribers. And just let us know if you wish to be deleted from our distribution list.
Keep cool,
Dan and Rebecca
www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com
