It’s pretty muggy out today, which is very unusual for here, except during monsoon season. Last weekend we got over 2 inches of rain. Usually a “good” monsoon brings 2.77 inches. While I’m certainly not complaining about rain, it is not pleasant to be outside.
After my latest doctor’s report I broke down and hired someone to mow my lawn this weekend. He’s here now and the dogs are going crazy. I reminded him (twice) that when I was feeling better I would be taking over again and so not to mow again without checking with me. He’s done with the front and side and it looks great.
It’s been an emotional week. I’m looking forward to regaining some equilibrium this weekend.
It probably won’t be this cool again until late October. The rain is a welcome sight as well, although the boys are driving me crazy. They can’t decide if they want to be inside or out. I put them out, which is fine until it thunders, which it’s been doing regularly over the past two hours. Luke either barks like crazy at the thunder or scratches at the door until I let him in. *sigh*
I had a nice time in Tucson (the pic is a view from my hotel room), but I was happy to get home late Wednesday afternoon. It was funny because during one workshop a monsoon storm came through the area. People got up during the speaker’s presentation to watch it hail out!
Thankfully when I got home no trees had been ignited in or near my yard. The dogs didn’t miss me much because John and Sarah took such good care of them. The next morning, Cotton and Lucy, who had both been ignoring me since my return both acted thrilled to see John (Lucy even kissed his arm!).
Later today I’m going over to John and Sarah’s for a barbeque. Other than that, I’m hoping for a very quiet and restful weekend.
Since I wasn’t convinced this morning that I’d fully recovered from the flu, I pretty much puttered around the house. Most of it involved cleaning, which generally involves moving furniture in my mind. I just think it’s easier to really clean if the furniture is being repositioned as well. Lucy, as you can tell by the picture, puts up with it, but she really doesn’t like it. Luke and Cotton just hide when the vacuum comes out, although Cotton has gotten a bit braver about it all recently. They were interested when I was cleaning off the top of the refrigerator; however I’m sure it was because that’s also where I keep their dog treats. I’m glad that John and Sarah are coming home today from their vacation in Chicago. It will be nice to have them back. Lucy and I drove out earlier today to check on their house for the last time before they get back.
I could smell it before I heard about it or saw the smoke from the fire burning on this side of the valley. This picture is from yesterday before it got considerably larger thanks to the wind. The news reports indicate a lightening strike started it; we certainly didn’t get any rain along with the lightening. After their experience last week, the boys were very reluctant to go outside this morning because of the smell. I don’t blame them at all.
While he’s happy to be in the house, Cotton still refuses to come near me. He does this everytime I’m gone for a few days. Luke, on the other hand, has been at my side since I returned home.
The burned tree is being removed today. My neighbors were a little irritated that I took a picture of it, but since I did it from my side of the fence, they’ll just have to live. I’m not sure why they waited until 11 a.m. to start it either, but that’s their business. (It was 96F at 8 a.m.)
I watched No Reservations and Juno earlier today while I was doing laundry and cleaning a bit. Since they irrigated yesterday instead of Tuesday as they normally do, mowing is out of the question for this weekend. Irrigation yesterday is also why I’m cleaning “a bit” since evertime the dogs come in they track in dirt with them.
I’m in Flagstaff for a work-related conference. (Yay for the 61F temp this morning!) I’m actually sitting with the balcony door open, enjoy the cool breeze and the sounds of nature this morning. While I’m not a big fan of conferences per se, I am thankful for a weather-reprieve, although I miss the dogs.
One of my friends is taking care of the dogs for me and he’s been very patient with my calls and worrying about them. I was horrified yesterday afternoon to get a call that the neighbor kids, and their friends, had set the tree in their backyard (next to their wood fence and one of my trees) on fire! My friend smelled the smoke and got the hose to make sure that my tree was safe. He also instructed them to get their hose and work on theirs while they waited for the fire departement to arrive. No one was hurt, and all my dogs are safe, but I can only imagine how frightened they were, especially Lucy. The neighbor kids? Apparently they were most upset by the fact the police insisted on calling their parent at work because they were going to be in trouble? *sigh*
It’s probably good that I’m here until Friday afternoon.
It’s hard to imagine Cotton was ever THAT little. Or that I ever found it “cute” when he was sitting on the table. It finally stopped raining a while ago and so while I was puttering around enjoying the lovely sunshine, I had to chase him off the table three times. *sigh* It’s hard to believe that it’s only 73F here today…a week ago it was 109F. I’m definitely not complaining.
There are times when there’s a great deal of activity (usually illegal) that occurs in the alley behind my house. It usually involves kids making stupid choices, although I know of at least once that the police chased (on foot) someone down the alley. The alley does not go all the way through so it’s easy to tell people who don’t normally use it because they get just past my back yard and realize they’re going to have to back out of the alley the way they came in. I have very little problems because 300 pounds of barking, growling dogs are a great deterrant for most people.
So imagine my surpirse (and irritation) when someone knocked on my BACK door at 1:52 a.m. this morning.
He’d jumped my fence (the back gate is padlocked) to come to the back door to ask me to borrow a shovel because he’d gotten his van stuckin the alley. I told him no. When he became a bit unpleasant, which was surprising because the dogs were already trying to get him through the security door, I told him I was letting the dogs out in 30 seconds.
I’m happy to report that he made a good choice and left my yard. I let the dogs stand at the back fence and perform for him for a little while and then we all went back to bed (after each dog had a little snack of course).
Lucy and Luke watching television together. This is the first time I’ve noticed Luke actually paying attention to the movement on the screen. Maybe it’s the new hdtv? Lucy went over quite often to check on Luke and give him a little kiss. Cotton was already staking out the bed for his sleeping place tonight.
Today was a rough day. I was reminded how ugly people can act at times. It made me even more thankful to come home to my furry friends, who are always happy to see me and love on me, even if I would prefer they didn’t lick me quite so much.
