Coffee heat rising

Aging in place

Movin’ On! Or is that STAGGERING On?

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LOL! So the Human took it into its pea-brained head to walk down to the nearby supermarket to pick up some stuff for itself and for the dawg.

That was what we call “Not Too Bright.” For godsake, as we scribble, the thermometer mounted in the deep, dark shade of the back porch reads 110 degrees. 

Really? What d’you suppose Wunderground thinks?

Yep: the same. A chilly 110. 

Welp! It’s a good thing I grew up in Saudi Arabia, there on the fringe of Hell. This kind of weather was par for the course there. Most of the time….

My guess is, this afternoon I survived BECAUSE the Arabian desert acclimated me to it.

So… As we’re staggering through that heat, our thoughts turn to…what if?  As in what if we dwelt somewhere else? Somewhere more civilized, someplace where humans were adapted to live?

Ohhh…kayyyy…. So, where would we go?

My cousin, a lovely and brilliant young woman, lives with her family in a suburb called Fountain Hills, over on the east side of the Valley. The area is somewhat elevated, enough to be noticeably cooler than my parts. Yea, verily: in the wintertime they’ll actually get snow.

Whatever THAT is.

It’s a bitch of a long way from my son, though. If he didn’t live in Central Phoenix, I might very well be in Fountain Hills as we scribble. But…f’r hevvinsake! It’s an hour’s drive from there to his house!

Nope. Not doin’ that.

SDXB moved to Sun City, in the wake of our brain-banging quarrel with Tony the Romanian Landlord. He tried to get me to go out there with him. But having lived there with my parents, I wasn’t bloody well about to go through THAT again! So…I felt bad to lose his companionship….but frankly, I can deal one helluva lot better with Tony than with roaring jets, bigoted neighbors, cheesy construction, and grocery stores that don’t carry real food.

Yea, verily! Here’s a terrifying revelation: I’ve come to rather LIKE ol‘ Tony the Romanian Landlord. In addition to being the single hardest-working man I’ve ever known, it turns out he’s remarkably intelligent. This is One…Smart…Dude. And that, alas, is a character trait that strongly attracts me.

So, here we are in a state of détente, quietly and slowly drifting toward truce. And maybe toward — hang onto your hat! — even friendship. We shall see what develops…and hope a move to Sun City is NOT that development. 

Humdidity!

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Just back from a walk around the immediate neighborhood: really, not more than five or six blocks, all told. It is SO HOT out there — under cloudy gray skies — that by the time I got back to the Funny Farm, I was just drenched in sweat.

Well…sweat or humidity. It’s VERY wet out there just now: reminiscent of (un)lovely Ras Tanura, the gringo housing camp perched on the shore of the Persian Gulf, there on the edge of Saudi Arabia. That was where we lived during the 10 interminable years that my father worked out there.

Hmmmm…  Just now, Wunderground claims the humidity is 67 percent under cloudy skies, at 87 degrees.

Yuch! No  wonder it feels so balmy out there… As in you’d be balmy to stick your nose out the door!

Truly an unpleasant stroll.

Said stroll took me, as usual, past SDXB’s old house, where he dwelt before Tony the Romanian Landlord scared him so much he moved to Sun City. He — SDXB — tried to get me to go out there, too. Having been there & done that, I declined.

But…hmmm…of course every time I walk by SDXB’s old place, every time I miss his companionship, I wonder: DO I want to move back out to (un)lovely Sun City?

And…well…the answer is invariably NO. Been there, done that, don’t wanna do it again.

My parents dragged me to Sun City when they retired (in their first attempt…) and installed me in the cute little house they bought out there.

  • I hated it.
  • I hated it.
  • I hated it.
  • And I hated it some more….

Seriously: living in a place where a whole class of people is openly declared unwelcome is…just not what I wanna do. Can’t think of anything or anyplace more unpleasant.

  • I was hated.
  • I was unwelcome.
  • I was considered weird.
  • I had to drive way to Hell and Gone into the city to go to work.
  • I loathed the racket from the Luke Air Force Base war planes roaring over our house, starting every day at 6:00 a.m.
  • I detested the ubiquitous gravel landscaping.
  • And I hated it that they didn’t have a decent grocery store out there. Apparently old folks don’t cook and don’t eat fresh food. Right?

Sooooo glad to be away from there!!! And you may be sure: I ain’t goin’ back. SDXB or no SDXB!

Ohhh well. That’s more there than here. In more immediate circumstances: yea verily! It’s hotter than Hell outdoors, right here in the ’Hood, even though the sky is solid gray from horizon to horizon. And yes: it’s amazingly humid.

Not as spectacularly so as some days could get in Saudi Arabia. But still: the air is soggy and your clothes are wet when you stagger in the door.

Garden spot, this…

Report from the Hubs of Hades

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Yow!!  Is it ever HOT out there!!!

Dawdled half the day away and so didn’t get out for the usual morning walk. Stupidly, I figured I’d go on out along about 3:00 p.m.

Bad idea. Extraordinarily bad idea.

As we scribble, it’s a mere 103 degrees out there, in full sun. 😀 Might’ crisp, eh???

Oh, well. Undeterrable, I take it into my feeble head to stroll past my old house and SDXB’s old house…not far from the Funny Farm, really: just a block to the north. My first house here was about two blocks to the west, on the same street as SDXB’s place.

Ye GAWDS!!!!!  

It must be a little damp out there, because it feels like the damn place has turned into an electric oven. Actually, Wunderground tells us the humidity is only 4%. So…dunno why it feels so unholy hot out there, except maybe because it’s late in the afternoon.

Ohhhhh well… Made it back to the Funny Farm without passing out, which just now seems like a bit of an accomplishment. We won’t pull THAT stunt again!!

***  😀 ***

Seriously, I do need to get off my duff and get that exercise walk in: EVERY DAY. Problem has been: various visitors and pests have been descending on me first thing in the morning, so I’ve had to sit around until they’re gone….and by then, a whole lot of other chores and tasks are waiting to get done. And by then, too, it’s already to goddamn hot to be frolicking up and down the sidewalks.

So:

After this, the Dawg and the Human shoot out that door no later than 7 a.m.  

That will get us back here by 8:00 — earlier, if we’re lucky. And though it’ll be getting hot by then, it won’t be paw-singeing or human-fainting. Yet.

Gosh, I miss SDXB.

Not so much as I’m willing to follow him to Sun City… Been there: ain’t goin’ there again. But I do wish he hadn’t moved away. He was a good neighbor and a pleasant friend.

He likes Sun City, though. Dwelling in a mausoleum never much appealed to me (hated the place when my parents lived there). But he and New Girlfriend seem to enjoy it and the unholy roar from the Luke Air Force Base fighter jets….loveleeee.

My mother loved it, too. She used to sit on her back porch every morning sipping her coffee over the morning paper and, when I was around, socializing with me. Incredibly, she actually claimed to LIKE that ungodly airplane racket.”Ohhh! It’s the sound of fweedom!” she would simper.

“Noooo, muther! That’s the sound of World War III, comin’ your way.” /eyeroll/

That was something I never could understand! The noise was just SO unpleasant…and forgodsake, first thing in the morning! 

Mysterious, people are….

So, anyway: After this, Ruby and I are out of the sack at dawn and on the road! That should get us back here before the worst of the heat comes up. Still will be hot: at this time of year we’re looking at temps in excess of 105 degrees. But nigh unto dawn, it should be tolerable.

Doggy Day from Hell

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Migawd!  I had SUCH a sh!tf!t of frustration this morning that now Ruby the Corgi will not come out from underneath the toilet, where she’s hiding.

That’s after I stalked out of the house and hiked all the way around the park and back, by way of unwinding. She’s been under there nigh unto an hour, and still refuses to come out.

Helle’s Belles!

Well, I don’t know how to calm her down. Offered her all sorts of prime doggy treats: she’s having none o’ that.

Horrible morning.

Actually, meteorologically it’s quite pretty. It’s just that…well…what we have here is One of Those Days: when everything you touch, look at, or think about goes wrong.

Tooth aches. That’ll be a fine bout of dental surgery, no doubt.

Peripheral neuropathy is making the hands and the lips go BZZZZZZZZZ!!

Dog remains terrorized.

Toilet sounds like it’s leaking. Again. That’ll be another spectacular plumber’s bill.

Computer screen decides to “zoom in,” expanding the size of everything in view by about 120%.  “Zoom out” command does…exactly nothing.

Without a car, I’ll have to carry this damn computer to the repair shop: through the heat and humidity.

Yep. Just a few minutes after 7:00 a.m., and we’re already looking at ONE OF THOSE DAYS. 

***

Yea, verily: come 7:40 a.m., one of those days is what we’ve got.

Somehow, the computer fixed itself. How, I do not know.

Toilet: still leaking. Why: unknown.

Let’s try flushing it again to see if, by some miracle, that’ll stop it.

Nope.

Dork with the stuff inside the tank.

Nope.

So…that’ll be another fine plumber’s bill. Hot dayum!

Tooth hurts tooth hurts tooth hurts tooth hurts: upper left molar. Too early to call the dentist. Plus: how am I gonna get over there without a car?

Helle’s Belles!  This is gonna be ONE OF THOSE DAYS.

Ohhhh well… At least the Dawg relented, climbed out from under the terlet, and is now snoozing atop the bed.

Yep.
This.
Is.
Gonna.
Be.
ONE OF THOSE DAYS. 

Soggy Doggy Day

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7:40 in the morning: Under a clear sky, the air is hot, wet, and soggy. Ruby and I  just shot in the front door, ahead of the babysitter by 20 minutes.

Yeah: that’s right: 20 minutes of peace and quiet, into which to jam one’s breakfast and coffee.

The Human stepped into a riot of ants as we stumbled along the sidewalk around the park. Got bit up royally.

Ah: The coffee is poured!

And so, to chow down…more or less…

8:00 a.m.
She’ll be here in minutes…

This is the thing about being a lone wolf all your life: You don’t want anyone around you!

That always has been my state of mind. Well…as long as I can remember, anyway.

Seriously: one of my very first memories is of sitting in a sandbox with the neighbor’s small kids, a boy and a girl. The sister brat takes her little shovel, scoops up a mound of sand, and SLAMS it into my face.

Instantly, my eyes are full of sand. And HURT? Lemme tellya hurt….

That was when I first learned to dislike and distrust other people.

We hadn’t left for Arabia yet…I just turned three years old on the day we arrived out there.

So…think o’ that: By the age of three, I hated my fellow humans. Already. Six miserable years in Aramco’s dreadful Ras Tanura grade school did not endear humanity to me any further.

So…yeah. Much as I appreciate whomever my son has hired to ride herd on me in my own home, I just don’t want anyone around me! Privacy is more important to me than safety.

Not a healthy attitude, I suppose.

****

Cripes. It’s twenty after eight. Where IS that woman?

Any chance (ohhh please, God!) that she’s not supposed to come over this morning?

Naaahhh…. More likely, she’s caught in traffic. I think she comes in from the far east side, which means she gets into profoundly hellish traffic jams on the way to the job. How glad ARE we that we don’t have to commute to work? Let us count the ways….

Here We Go Again…

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Ugh! Today is the 30th, and the calendar says one “Janie” is supposed to surface at 8:00 a.m. — that’s 20 minutes from now — and hang around until 4:00 p.m.

Janie is a babysitter. A woman my good son has hired to watch over senile little me, drive me to grocery stores, and whatnot.

  • That the Funny Farm is within walking distance of three grocery stores: meh! Doesn’t matter.
  • That I value my privacy above just about all else: meh! Doesn’t matter.
  • That just this minute, I do not relish the prospect of having someone in my face: meh! Doesn’t matter.
  • That the kitchen  needs to be picked up before someone barges in and starts sniffing around: meh! Doesn’t matter.
  • That all I wanna do at 7:45 in the morning is relax and play with my computer: meh! Doesn’t matter.
  • That, failing a good loafing session, the second-best thing I wanna do at 7:45 in the morning is take a nice skinny-dip in the pool: meh! Doesn’t matter.

Well…the latter probably isn’t relevant. At this  hour, one never knows what yard and pool workers will show up.

At least the Hound and I got out the door early enough for the day’s circumnavigation of the park. Not history’s most pleasant stroll, though: it’s muggy and sticky and yucky out there. Reminiscent of (un)lovely Saudi Arabia, where you could wake up in the morning and see rain falling out of a clear sky.

Arizona’s never that bad. But today, we’re in the competition. The air is hot, wet, and gummy. And air-conditioning notwithstanding, I sure am glad I don’t have a job where I have to throw myself around cleaning house. Or pretending to clean house.

***
A-a-a-n-d…here she is!

What a marvelous pistol this lady is! If you MUST have someone underfoot all day, this is the one to have. 😀  She’s smart, she’s witty, she’s friendly, she’s got her act 100% together. And I think I can pester her into taking me to a grocery store.

She brought over some nopalitos: a type of cactus-based delicacy.

Onward!