Coffee heat rising

How Could She Do That?

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Y’know… It’s one thing to poison yourself.

But another thing altogether to poison your child.

How on earth could she have done that?  Why would she have done such a thing? Year in and year out?

My mother smoked. She didn’t just smoke a little. She smoked constantly. She was never awake when she didn’t have a cancer stick in her mouth. Not even in the shower! You knew when she awoke in the middle of the night by the stink emanating from her bedroom.

And I was sick all the time I was growing up in her household. Constant, unending respiratory illness. Never stopping. Not until I got out of her house.

She smoked herself to death. And she damn near smoked me to death. Maybe she imagined it would be fitting and lovely for us to share a grave?

Yeah, I understand: it was an addiction. 

But you know, a person can beat addiction. Apply some knowledge and some will power, and you can take it down.

She know exactly what she was doing. The word came down in the late 1950s: tobacco smoking causes cancer. And it makes the people around you sick.

Oh, yeah. She knew what she was doing. She did it anyway.

It killed her.

What a waste.

Eeeek-a-Dawg!!!

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Ohhhh my goodness!  This evening I truly thought the Pool Dude had left the side gate open, that Ruby had found it, and that she’d taken off for Yuma!

Couldn’t find her when I went to call her in for the night. 

The back door to the house, in lovely weather like we’re having now, hangs open most of the time, so she comes and goes as she pleases. Consequently, the side gate to the yard is normally closed and latched.

But…Pool Dude was here. What does he know of dogs and of gates???

This evening she disappeared from view. Didn’t come to call. Ohhhhhhh sheee-ut!

And yes, the side gate was unlatched.

Ho-leeee shee-ut!!

Called and called.

No dawg.

Went inside to put on the clodhoppers, so as to go out through that gate and trot off down the road, calling and calling and calling…no doubt fruitlessly.

Just when I got back to the side yard, though: she surfaced.

No, she had NOT run away down the road.

THANK YOU, GOD!!!!

* * * *

Whew! After this, forgodsake, REMEMBER TO CHECK THAT GATE in the wake of any workman who stumbles into the yard!!!!!

Pool Dude In! Pool Dude Out!

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Ohhhhhh my gawd!!! Two hundred bucks (plus, plus, plus) to clean that damn swimming pool and service the equipment.

No wonder my neighbor Terri just lets hers sit there dry and rotting away!

Actually, repairing the mess after you let the thing go to pot for several years would cost one helluva lot more than keeping it up every few months. But…jeez. It still gives you a gawdawful shock, every time you have to get someone in here to work on it.

And WORK is the operative word!!!  Holeeee mackerel. First off, the guy has to know HOW to work on it…which is one helluva lot more than I’d be capable of. Then he has to bang and thrash and scour and haul and carry on and carry on to get the damn thing clean, service the filter and motor, and…on and on and freakin’ ON!

That’s in the afternoon heat. As we scribble, the back porch thermometer reads a chilly 105 degrees. No joke: normally at this time of year it would be around 110 out there. And that makes our guy’s job one of those jobs you’re glad you don’t have! 

Yea verily: my neighbor does leave hers sitting empty. 

But…but… What that does is ruin the plaster and let the equipment go to pot. So…if and when she goes to move out, to get that dead pool working will cost her not one but SEVERAL arms and legs. Really: it’s incredibly stupid to just let your pool go to pot. What a mess you’ll have to repair when you sell the house!

And I have to say: I do love the pool. I swim in there several times a week. Not every day, admittedly…but often enough and with enough enjoyment to make it worth keeping the thing up.

Man O man!  What a JOB that guy did. Nothing about Pool Dude’s work is either simple or easy. Even regularly keeping up with the day-to-day maintenance, there’s no way in Hell that I could do the work that fella did this afternoon.

Anyway, whenever the sun goes far enough over the yardarm that I can jump in the drink without giving myself a roaring case of skin cancer, I’ll take a nice swim. And that will be…rewarding, I reckon.

A Little Escape…Of Sorts

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{chortle!} Looks like I escaped a nuisance that was slated to descend on me today. 😀

Mijito arranged for some woman that he’d hired for babysitting me to show up this morning. It’s now mid-afternoon: no sign of the woman.

😀

Unkind as it is of me, I’m afraid I’m MIGHTY GLAD she hasn’t shown up.

No, I do NOT want some employee bopping in here every day or so to check on me and pester me. I do just fine all by my stupid little self!

Yes, I would welcome someone to drive me to grocery stores and the like. But guess what? An Uber driver lives right across the street. All I have to do is call the Uber number here in town and they’ll send him over.

Most of the shopping I do routinely is available within easy walking distance, though. That, however, does NOT apply when the outside temperature exceeds 100 degrees. At this time of year: yeah, I do need that Uber dude. Most of the year, not so much.

Anyway, I was (as a matter of fact) figuring that whenever this new babysitter showed up, I’d have her take me to the Albertson’s (supermarket) and to the computer store. But…evidently not! 

All that means, though, is that now I don’t have to go out in 100-degree heat this afternoon!

Awwwww….what a shame, eh?

Around the Swamp…uhm, Park

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Hot, soggy morning. Ruby and I: just back from circumambulating the big, green park that forms the centerpiece of the ‘Hood,

Handsome young parents roll their adorable toddlers around in strollers. Other old buzzards like me dodder around behind our dogs. Athletic middle-aged types stride or jog past us. Workmen shoveling out the house vacated by the couple who lost everything when their son was arrested on some absurd charge putter around the corner house. Early commuters zip past on the mini-arterial that runs up the center of the ‘Hood. Very pretty, very classy spot.

Briefly, I considered buying that house. But…well, no.

It just requires TOO much work. That crew of workmen have been there for a couple of weeks, and it sure doesn’t look like they’re gonna be finished soon. Plus the pool was allowed to stand in the sun and dry out, ruining the plaster and probably everything that runs the thing. And the traffic on the road that runs past it is fairly fierce. Nope. don’t think so!

Plus it’s too damn public The house backs onto the park. Even with a bank of oleanders running along the back fence, it’s too easy for passers-by and burglars to see into the yard and, if they look closely, through the French doors and into the house.

I do believe the place I’m in will be a much better investment to pass along to my son — assuming I can manage to stay here until I croak over. It’s in excellent shape: decently maintained inside and out; pool running well and also well maintained; a decent distance from busy (read “noisy”) roads… No: this is the place.

This is the place I need to hand along to my son!

Hot Day in the ‘Hood

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Augh!  It’s just NOT that hot out there!  A piddling 92 degrees, at a feeble 7 percent humidity. But I stumbled in the house SOAKING wet, sweltering like I’d  come in from the 6th level of Hell.

Holy mackerel, is it sticky and hot out there!

Just returned from perambulating the neighborhood. True: I might have refrained from going out at 3:00 in the afternoon. Ohhh well: no IQ left.

Fortunately, I left the little dog home. She’d have been fried by now. Really: If you’d asked me, I’d have estimated about 95+ degrees: more like pushing 100.

Gerardo the Miraculous Yard Dude presented me with a new $20 gouge on this month’s bill…which now, as I gasp for air here in the A.C., I cannot find. Wouldn’tcha know?

Well, it’ll surface. What the Hell!

Interestingly (so I think, anyhow), the ‘Hood has maintained its quality, despite its advancing age and central urban location. My goodness. I’ve been here a good 15 years or more…and if anything, our streets and homes look BETTER than they did when I moved in.

This leaves me hope for my plan to leave the house to my honored son. I really would like him to have this pleasant, well built place…but that will be useful only if the neighborhood holds its value. Just now, it appears that’s exactly what’s happening!  In fact…if anything the place may be improving in maintenance and cosmetics.