Coffee heat rising

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! 😀

 

Hotter Than a Two-Dollar Cookstove…

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So in my latest post, there I am raving on about how happy I don’t have a laborer’s job, flinging myself and a pile of tools around in the ungodly heat. And…egad!  I kid you not: ANY manual-labor job that has to be done outdoors is downright suicidal on an Arizona summer day.

One of the men working across the street had left his truck’s headlights on. None of his coworkers seemed to have noticed. So I stopped to let him know…and in the process, to thank him for the ungawdly job he’s doing to keep our neighborhood functioning. He was kinda nonplussed by that…but then he seemed to get a kick out of it.

😀

It’s damn near too hot to breathe out there! How our guys manage to do physical work on days like this…well, it just mystifies me.

About all I could manage was to stumble around the block — short route — and stagger back into the house.

No: I can’t plunge into the pool. At noon on an Arizona day, that’s an invitation to skin cancer.

So here we are, loafing in the AC and scarfing cheddar on bread. Boring, but at least we’re still alive.

That’s something. I guess.

Jobs We’re Glad We Don’t Have!

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Egad!!!!!  It’s a chilly 100 degrees out there: rather cooler than it feels. As we loaf in the shade, who do we see across the road but a crew of men flinging themselves around in that unholy heat. Actually, they have a flatbed truck and a large hoist, with which they’re hauling a whole-house air-conditioning unit onto the neighbor’s roof.

And migawd, WHAT a job!

Definitely, indisputably one of those jobs you’re glad you don’t have!

LOL! Another job I’m mighty glad I don’t have is wrangled by my excellent neighbor straight across the southerly street: He drives a cab for Uber.

HOLEE mackerel! In this heat!! And in Phoenix’s unholy L.A.-style traffic!!!

It’s almost too horrible to contemplate.

Seriously: Phoenix traffic really is gawdawful. Drivers here roar around like lunatics. Add the heat and the crowded conditions, and you have a freakin’ nightmare.

So…one COULD, with some degree of logic and sanity, argue that my son did me a favor by purloining my car.

As a practical matter, I’m discovering that I don’t need to own a car(!!!): this neighborhood is swarming with Uber drivers! That’s above & beyond the guy who lives right across the street. We’re told that a half-dozen hold forth just in the few nearby square blocks.

If that’s the case, then there really is no reason to own a car!

And that is something this ole’ California driver finds just plain downright astonishing.

What DXH and I used to find truly astonishing was that in London, we truly had no call to own a car. When we got over there for the three-month period we dedicated to the research I was doing for the Robert Sidney book, we discovered that between the Underground, the city busses, and the local taxicabs, we didn’t need to rent a car at all!

That saved us a ton of money…to say nothing of vast stores of aggravation. Driving in London is almost as much fun as driving in New York City.

***

Whew!! The guys across the street got the AC unit back on the neighbor’s roof. Looks like they’re gonna have to re-lay some or all of the shingles. Doesn’t THAT sound like fun, in 110-degree heat!

LOAFING: The best of all possible occupations!

Eeeek!

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This fire is burning just up the road from our beloved ranch, located up the hill from the town of Wickenburg. Terrifying!

It looks like it’s still a distance from where our house and barns were located. But…wayyyy too close for comfort.

{sigh} So…I guess I’m glad we sold out and fled to the Valley. But darn it! I still do miss that place…and the ranch house and the barns…and the horses and the cattle…and the river and the trees…and… {sob!}

It’s so beautiful up there! And the weather is soooo much nicer than we get in the Valley…even a hot day is nothing like 110 degrees.

But…I guess whenever I pine for that good old place, I really do need to remind myself that it has some drawbacks. Like…raging brush fires!

Surprise! {Sorta…}

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Just got hunkered down with the computer and my toys, all set to waste the afternoon loafing atop the bed, when

BING BONG!

ohhhhh gawd, what now?

CLEANING LADY, that’s what’s now!

Awwww jeez!

She just got done at the WonderAccountants’ house across the street, and now here she is, all set to shovel out the Funny Farm.

It’s MONDAY! I thought she came on Thursdays. But…that’s senility for ya! 😀

So now she’s in the back of the house, shoveling out the bedrooms. And I’ll tellya: THERE is a job I’m sure glad I don’t have.

She does a wonderful job, we might add. Which, presumably, testifies to her remarkable level of energy. How she holds up through a full day of wrestling with other folks’ messes just flummoxes me!!

Anyhow, even though I’m totally not in mood to have somebody around all afternoon, I’m still mighty glad to see her.

Well…at least I’d bestirred myself, early this morning, to pick up the breakfast dishes and load the dishwasher. This meant not too much mess to clean out of her way.

Y’know, that woman must be strong as a horse. Just cleaning one house — my own! — wears me out. She does three in a single day. Apparently just about every day.

If I had her job, I’d be taking today off! Sprained an ankle…and now can barely limp around the house. DayUM, but it hurts. But I don’t suppose it’s gonna kill me. Not anytime soon, anyhow.

Darn it, though! Her arrival means a bunch of things I’d planned to do will not get done this afternoon. One of them was bathe and wash my hair. Ohhhh well…it’ll wait till after she leaves.

Other stuff: it’s now too hot to go outside and walk around. With my car purloined, that means I can’t make it to the grocery store or the hair stylist. Ohhhhh well…that many fewer things to have to do today, eh?

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!