Coffee heat rising

Life in the Desert

Good(?) Morning, America!

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NINETY-FIVE DEGREES in the shade of the back porch, at 7:00 in the morning!  Hoooleeeee shee-ut!  How hot IS it supposed to get today?

Hmmm….  Saith Wunderground: 108 degrees, with 23% humidity.

Dog and Human are just back from our morning stroll — around the park and through the hood, the air so thick you could swim through it. Yea, verily: it’s mighty hot and sticky out there.

Ohhhh well: at least we’re exercised. After a fashion.

What new horrors are on the calendar?  Checking…

Hmmmm… Doesn’t look like anything. One can only hope…

What I am hoping is that my son doesn’t have one of the housekeeper/babysitters slated to descend on me this morning. What a NUISANCE those women are!

Not through any fault of their own. It’s my eccentricity that creates the problem. I strongly prefer my aloneness. I really, really don’t like people underfoot. And especially not strangers. Not hired help.

Oh, well. If one of the poor dears shows up, I’ll make her drive me to the Sprouts and the Albertson’s. That’ll soak up the better part of her morning, anyway. Then maybe I can pretend to take a nap, which will extract an hour or two of relative privacy.

At any rate, at least the little dawg is exercised, and we got out before the pavement could burn her feet. If there’s any question in your mind about whether this place is a precinct of Hell, all you need to do to resolve that question is to visit in June, July, or August.

I could brain my father for dragging us here when he retired. Too late, though: his brains have been reduced to a pile of ashes. 😀

Seriously, I assumed that we would stay in San Francisco, near my mother’s relatives. Or at least in Southern California, where my parents had lived before we decamped to Saudi Arabia.

Jayzuz! TEN YEARS in that Middle-Eastern Hell-Hole. Can you imagine?

Actually, for my mother and me it was a mere nine years. Toward the end of his planned sojourn out there, she came down with amoebic dysentery. Almost died from it. But she did recover, at which point her doctors told my parents that she needed to get out of Arabia and come back to the States, where she could get better medical care and get away from the endemic parasites.

So, to his infinite disgust, my father had to quit the job that he figured would support him into early retirement. He sent my mother and me to San Francisco (where surviving members of her family lived); stayed in Arabia until the end of his contract (another nine months); and then got a first mate’s job shipping out of the East Bay.

Poor guy! All his plans went down the toilet. He’d figured to spend another year or two in Hell, and then retire — that’s how much Americans got paid out there. But alas, ’twas not to be!

Thank Gawd, from my mother’s and my point of view…

Anyway…the air here is not as soggy this morning as it used to be by dawn’s early light in Araby. But by comparison with what’s normal here, it’s darned sticky!

Out the Door Again….

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…And into the swampy morning. Ugh!!!! Is it ever HOT and WET and STICKY out there!

But we managed to make a circumambulation of the garden spot that is our neighborhood.

Walked by SDXB’s old house. The city GAVE it to a woman who was dispossessed of her own home by construction of an airport runway. As you might imagine, she seems kinda uncomfortable here in Upper Middle America: basically she hides inside her house. Ring the doorbell, and she won’t come out.

She will, however, purloin any packages that Amazon leaves there mistakenly. The street number is the same as mine, AND the road name is almost identical: Lane instead of Way. Even when I enter an extra line in my address for Amazon, reading “WAY, NOT LANE!” they still deliver things to her place.

Guess what I should do is have Amazon purchases delivered to my son’s house. But…what would be the point of that?  If I have to drive to his place to buy something, I might as well just walk across Main Drag West to buy it.

{sigh} Sure do wish SDXB were still living here in the ’Hood. He moved to Sun City, where he’s living (I think…some question about that) happily ever after. He quickly picked up a new girlfriend out there…meaning she’s the one who has to take care of him in what apparently is his final illness.

I’ve lived in Sun City. Hated it! Wouldn’t go back there on a bet. Not if you paid me!

  • The jet engine racket from nearby Luke Air Force Base defies belief.
  • So does the level of Hate among the locals.
  • At the time I was there, they didn’t have a decent grocery store. If frozen crap and junk food appealed, you were fine. But if you wanted fresh veggies and meat: fuggedaboudit.
  • It’s a long, LONG way from where my son lives. I’d hardly ever see him if I moved out there.
  • The houses are cheaply built. You, too, can air-condition the Great Outdoors!

The ‘Hood is centrally located, on the high end of the upscale North Central section of lovely uptown Phoenix, bordered on two sides by dire slums.

Hmmmm…looks like our software is hanging. So: outta here! 

GORGEOUS Evening!

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Oh, my! WHAT a beautiful evening!

Just got back from circumnavigating the ‘Hood: for the first time in living memory, without the dog dragging me around. Lovely! Absolutely LOVELY.

The air is soft and delicate. No heat. No cold, either.

No one else was around, so the way was quiet and peaceful, just as gentle as gentle can be. I’ve not had as pleasant a walk in as long as I can remember!

So. After this, the Dawg gets her hike the first thing in the morning. Then I get my stroll last thing in the evening. That way, I get twice as much walking in. Ruby misses out on nothing. And I get to enjoy this lovely neighborhood.

Gosh, I hope the evenings stay this pleasant for a good long time: ideally, into and even through the summer.

That’s a forlorn hope, o’course: come late June and July, it’ll be hotter than the hubs of Hades out there.

But for the nonce, I can build a habit of a daily walk. And then when the summer blast fires up, Ruby and I can follow the same route first thing in the morning, before the sun comes up. That’ll leave only about three weeks when the summer heat makes the place truly non-navigable.

Quite a stroll it was, too. Not a single bum. No weirdos. No undue racket from the main drags. Unusual, one could say.

Let Us Try Again…

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So…ahem!  What happens if we post another test entry? Or…what the hell: a WHOLE, REAL entry for Funny about Money???

Okay: testing, testing! 

****

Today we’re enjoying another Day from Hell. 

My poor son is so frustrated with me and so mad at me that he can barely manage to be civil. Yea verily, at times he can’t rise to that stratospheric height.

And I don’t blame him. Forgodsake, I can hardly remember my  name. I keep getting things confused. I keep fu*king things up. Everything I touch or even so much as think about goes KERFLOOIE!

And I’m starting to get really scared. Like, REALLY scared. 

Never before has the entire goddamn world gone bzzzzzzzz for me. Everything is confused. I can’t remember things. I lose things. I forget to pay bills. It’s a freaking ASTONISHING mess.

***

Wonder Cleaning Lady is here, wrestling with the pigpen. She’s a truly delightful and amazing person.

Honestly: at this point I don’t know what I’d do without her!

I  need to go to a grocery store, but dare not traipse through 100-degree heat on foot: eight or ten blocks each way. I probably could order something online…but in the past have discovered that is not a real successful way to get what you want.

Americans don’t eat a lot of fresh produce. When you order a delivery, you have to ask for packaged stuff: things that a person doesn’t have to pick out. Ask for fresh vegetables or fruit, and what you get is ick. Yeah: inedible ick.

So the only way I can get the kind of food I normally eat — largely fresh produce — is to go to the store and pick it out myself.

And…if I can’t do that, I’m in a pickle.

An inedible pickle!

Might ask her to drive me to a store…but that seems a little much. She’s spent hours cleaning this place….and now I want her to chauffeur me around?

Don’t think so….

WHOA!!!!! 

Lookee here! Sprouts opens at 7 a.m.!!!!

Holeee shee-ut! 

Even in the current weather, at that hour the air will be cool enough that I could get up there and back without succumbing to a heat stroke.

Jeez! Who knew?

Okay, let’s think about this….

If I left here at 6:30 — maybe more like 6:40, actually — I could get there just as they open. I do have a little-old-lady’s rolling cart(!!). So if I dragged that over there, I could load the groceries into it, get out of the store by about 7:30 a.m., and reach the house at 8:00.

It would still be on the low side of unbearably hot by then: no question of it. But…it wouldn’t be suicidal yet! I probably could get a pile of food and household stuff and get back here before the heat would be enough to make me sick.

Looks like temperatures are expected to be around 79 to 82 degrees at that hour.

Yeah. That’s tolerable. But yeah: I will have to shoot out of the house at dawn.

Goodie.

And as we scribble?

A hot, heavy wind has blown up. It’s roaring around out there.

That is NOT something you wanna be strolling around in. So that obviates trotting to the store this evening…even if that was something I wanted to do. Which I sure as Hell don’t….

So…hmmm…. Will I be able to BBQ tonight? Wanted to cook up the salmon my son bought for me a couple days ago.

Doesn’t look like it. But…one never knows.

Wait until Wonder-Cleaning Lady leaves and then decide, I guess.

And if this weather obviates grilling? Hmmm…  Well…there’s pasta…that’ll do the job, I reckon.

***
AUGH!!!!

Just to make everything perfect, Wonder Cleaning-Lady reports that the damn vacuum cleaner is busted.

I fiddle with it. I dork with it.

Yep. She’s right: it’s not working.

With no car, tomorrow I’ll have to DRAG it to the appliance store. Won’t that be fun!  While I’m dragging a shopping cart, too.

Okay. Let’s tempt a little fate and see if this post will go online….

 

 

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?