Coffee heat rising

Aging in place

Hubs of Hades Central!

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LOL! Yesterday I reported that it was hotter than the hubs of Hades here. And yea, verily: so it was.

BUT…we hadn’t seen Hades yet, by yesterday afternoon. Today it’s handsomely HOT and stickily HUMID. Ick!!!!

Seriously: I’d planned to walk over to one of the three nearby grocery stores and pick up a few food items this morning.

Uh…no. Nope, noooo indeed.

Fortunately, we have plenty of dawg food: enough to last a good week or ten days.

Human food: likewise. Plenty of frozen salmon, pieces of steak, pasta, veggies, and whatnot.

Shouldn’t have to raid a grocer for at least ten days; probably two weeks. Amazon will ship the dog food. Human food also: to a degree….but personally, I like to see and examine my own chow before I buy it. This, however, should not be a problem. Just get out of the house about the time a store opens, and it should be easy to dodge the soggy heat.

My neighbor was out front pruning shrubbery when I trotted past his house. Man of steel, I’ll tellya! You couldn’t pay me to do that in this weather. BUT…it does have to be done…and hiring some hapless wretch to do it for you is likely to bankrupt you.

At any rate, as I frolicked  past, he assured me that he would drive me to a store if need be.   🙂

The supermarkets nearby (three of them!) open at around 7:00 a.m. So if I roll out of the sack at sunrise, I’ll be able to walk over to a nice store and stock up on whatever I need, before it gets too hot. But seriously: I don’t think that will be necessary for awhile.

PLUS: the other day a neighbor invited me to visit the nearby Sprouts with her. She drove us over there. That was nice…AND it was fun. So I may be able to talk her into a repeat trip.

And a variety of professionals and service providers operate within walking distance:

* ophthalmologist
* veterinarian
* computer store (2 of ’em)
* drugstore/pharmacy
* supermarket (2 huge ones), each with its own pharmacy
* hair stylist

On and on and on, actually…. Truth to tell, there really is no need to go outside the Funny Farm’s immediate neighborhood to get about 98% of one’s standard needs done. Especially with Amazon filling in the gaps!

Y’know, this is how it was when DXH and I lived in London for several months, while I worked on the Robert Sidney book. We never needed a car, unless we took it into our heads to go sight-seeing in the country. I suppose that means Phoenix has “grown up” as a city: it now functions as a genuine metropolis.

WhatEVER: just now I feel pretty confident that I’ll be able to live here at the Funny Farm for at least a couple more years — maybe longer than that. Especially if I can hire someone to come in and take care of the house, drive me to requisite destinations, and generally ride herd on me.

We shall see if that proves to be true! 😀

Hotter than the Hubs…

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Did you know you can work up a lather just by walking around a few blocks in your neighborhood?

😀

Well. Yeah: if you live in (un)lovely Arizona, you sure can!

It is HOT and WET out there! Lightly overcast: feels almost like Saudi Arabia used to feel. And that, for those who haven’t enjoyed the experience, feels a great deal like the inner circles of Hell.

That notwithstanding, today’s damp and steamy stroll was surprisingly pleasant. Passed a young couple in their front yard, showing off their new baby to friends. awwwww! 

<3  <3  <3

Our financial advisor was supposed to send over a candidate for the cleaning lady position he (unilaterally) proposes to offer. NEVVERMIND that I have a very fine cleaning lady who has worked for me over the past several  years and whom I have no intention of replacing.

Hey! I’m just the Little Woman, right? Who cares what I think?

Anyway, if she showed up while I was stumbling around the ‘Hood, I missed her. She didn’t call and she didn’t leave a note, so I’ll assume either she never surfaced or else he smartened up enough to call her off.

😀

Life. Gets sillier and sillier, doesn’t it?

Passed a new life as I was ambling about: a young couple with a brand-new baby. Too, too delightful. 

Dayum, but I love this neighborhood. And “love this neighborhood” is THE specific reason I do NOT wish to be locked up the the Beatitudes, an old-folkerie from Hell.

How the Hell do I evade that?

****

Do hafta say, though, that this IS the nicest neighborhood I’ve ever lived in. And since I’ve lived in places all over the damn planet — from here to Saudi Arabia — that is sayin’ something. And that’s why I most decidedly NOT want to be moved out of here.

For what it costs to live in a prison for old folks, I’m pretty sure I can hire someone to come here and take care of me. You can be damn sure I’m gonna try, anyhow.

Main trick will be to find someone responsible, competent, and incapable of stealing stuff.

And, as you know…that’ll be a trick! 

😀

Passworded Out!

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Gawdlmighty, every freakin’  thing you need to do on the Internet now demands a password. And by damn, they all have to be different!

No way can I even begin to remember all these things. So they’re typed out and taped to the shell of my laptop.

Okay, okay: it’s not THAT big a deal. Just now only three sets of secret codes are taped to the computer. But it’s annoying.

Very annoying.

Speaking of annoying, we’re told some sort of social workers are supposed to show up here this morning — within an hour or so, far as I can tell.

> Who these folks are: unknown
> What agency they’re from: unknown
> Who sicced them on me: unknown.

Soon as they show up, I’ll have to demand that they show me some credentials. But…who knows whether those will be real or counterfeit?

Whether they represent some sort of threat or risk to me: also unknown. Is someone trying to stampede me into an old-folkerie? If so, who might that be and what grounds might they be advancing as an excuse to lock me up?

Anyway, I sure could do without it.

This morning’s weird antic means I can’t take poor li’l Ruby (or poor li’l me) for a walk before it gets hot outside.

Assuredly, I am NOT a happy camperette over this. I do NOT like officious types poking their noses into my business; I do NOT feel obligated to discuss my personal issues with strangers, and I highly resent having these people show up at my door to demand…what?

Made even less happy because, as you know and I know, the likelihood that these people are looking for excuses to declare me incompetent to live on my own is exceptionally high. Gets higher with every minute that my age proceeds toward 90… So somehow I’ve got to make myself look competent, competent, and ultra-competent:

  • The house must be picked up
  • The furniture must be dusted
  • The bed must be made
  • The breakfast dishes must be stashed in the washer
  • And…and…good morning, America! 

I am NOT in the mood to cope with a lot of housekeeping ditz this morning. Or any morning: that’s why I hire a cleaning lady! 

Unfortunately, she hasn’t been around for almost a week, so I’ve got to retrace her steps and tidy up everything. And I don’t wanna. All I wanna do is finish my morning coffee!

What concerns me most about this, though, is the possibility that whoever tattled on me is angling to get me committed to an old-folkerie. And that is something I regard with horror.

I most surely do NOT want to live in an institution! I hated, loathed, and despised every minute of living in our college dorms. Not because the dorm-mates weren’t nice, not because the dorms weren’t maintained well enough…not because of anything other than that I deeply, profoundly dislike communal living.

Give me a cave in the Himalayas and I’ll be fine! 😀

 

The Music of the Morning

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Coming on to mid-morning here in the Funny Farm’s backyard. And…oh my goodness, what a lovely place, what a lovely symphony!

What we have out here in the side yard, where we take our morning dose of caffeine, is BIRDS. Hordes of wondrous birds.

Just now, the Bird Theater is dominated by a flock of beautiful doves. A slew of white-wings waddle around out here, grumbling at each other and searching for the seeds I’ve failed to put out this morning. Those critters do make for a fine start to the day.

A variety of songbirds are holding forth, as we scribble. What a symphony! Tweedle tweedle twee cheepee cheepee cheepee cheepee TWEE-uu TWEE-uu chirpita chirpita chirpita squaaaa squaaaa chirp chirp chirp chirp!!!!

Too delightful for words.

Hm. Maybe that’s why birds don’t have words???

  • I should take the dawg for a walk, before this gorgeous morning turns hot.
    • Too lazy. Who, me? set my coffee down???
  • I should drag the hoses around the yard.
    • Too lazy. What? get off my duff???
  • I should go back to bed.
    • Too lazy. That would entail getting off my duff and hiking to the bedroom…

Ohhhh well!  What can I say? Other than, maybe, Let’s go back to bed! 

Pant! Gasp!

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Four-thirty in the afternoon, and it’s 103 degrees in the shade of the back porch. Wunderground predicts temps as high as 109.

Credible. Highly credible. 😮

Yes. It IS seriously hotter than the hubs of Hades out there. Dawg and I are back in the house, after a brief circumnavigation of the neighborhood lane to the north of us.

LOL! Wunderground gives us an EXTREME HEAT WARNING extending from 10 a.m. tomorrow to 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Well. Sure. OK.  “Extreme”?  Seriously?  105 to 109 degrees at the height of the afternoon?  Well. Whatever you say, dear Wunderground.

I’d call that an ordinary Summer afternoon in (un)lovely Phoenix.

Yeah: hotter than Hell. You expected a balmy spring afternoon (un)lovely Phoenix, come the first days of summertime?  Good grief!

Gosh, though….this IS a pretty neighborhood. Hotter than Hell or not, it’s an attractive place to live. Think Ruby and I will stay….  😀

And…that’s a serious threat…uhm…thought. Matter of fact, I’d sure like to be able to leave this house to my son. It’s a handsomely designed and well-built little castle. If and when he inherits it, he could easily sell it for half a million bucks. (Yeah: that’s only $500,000, which is about par for the neighborhood these days.)

Think o’that! He could sell this house and retire on the proceeds. Or sell his own pile and move in here for the duration. Both houses are worth about the same.

Mine is a decade or three newer than his..so this place is likely to cost him less to maintain. Plus it has a pool. Yeah, a PITA of sorts…but also mighty nice at this time of year.

😀

Parboiled in Phoenix…

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Ruby and her human are just back from the neighborhood park. HOT, stuffy, stagnant morning over there…ugh!  Hardly a jolly frolic.

Oh, well. At least we got a little exercise. Ruby is flopped under the master bathroom toilet: in Canine Estimation, the coolest spot in the house. The Human is parked in front of a fan, swilling iced coffee.

In the Olden Days, when Whitey-Whites first lived in these environs, people would leave town for the summer. They’d go up on the “Rim,” as the high country is called, and pass the hot months there.

Yea verily: we used to own a ranch up there. We co-owners would betake ourselves to that place whenever we could.

Sure do wish we still had it!

😀

But oh!  The little kids in the park are so delightful, frolicking around in the dawn heat! Ruby and I loafed and watched the urchins burn off the parents’ calories. Eventually it got too warm to linger, and so we ambled back to the Funny Farm.

And here we sit, continuing the loafing chore.

Thank goodness we found Pool Dude!  Otherwise, I’d be out there in the backyard with the brush and the vacuum right now, cleaning the Hole in the Ground into Which to Pour Money. And lemme tellya: loafing, that is NOT. 

{chortle!} I do love the pool, though. Really, I ought to be out there right now paddling around in the drink. But oh, my…it really IS fricaseeing hot outside. Having come back from the park nicely parboiled, I can’t move myself to go back outdoors, even if it entails cooling off in the luxurious pool.

Phoenix, Arizona: Garden spot…