Soporific

The sound of the steady rain aided me in my early afternoon siesta....good soaking rain for several hours....so now it smells like swampy air through the open windows....and the radar is showing another rain line headed this way.....so low 70s today instead of low 90s like lately.....I had grilled corned beef with cheddar and onion for lunch.....I did go get some trail mix and some

mosquito spray right as it was starting to rain this morning.....the ad was in the mail later....looks like whole chickens at a good price.....maybe it's time for a crock pot bird, and whatever I can figure to go with that....I still have some cilantro.....

looks like some rain today

a disturbance from the NW will move into our swampy air from the Gulf and something's going to give.....maybe by late morning.....so it's cooler and scattered clouds, got my walks over with early....will probably get by with just ceiling fans again today, without running the whole-house contraption.....Summer is half over? School starts the third week of August I think.....some cousins are at the beach this week, some were there last week.....the lettuce went rusty, so I threw it out....don't really need lettuce for tacos anyway.....might be crunchy taquitos for supper, a variation on the theme.....and Wednesday we'll see what's for supper another week....I might go over to the store just to get some snack mix, since it's all gone.....maybe, maybe not.....it was nice again last night out on the porch late, with a cool breeze.....I need to get some Off too, that's another thing that's all gone.....but the flies haven't been very bad yet this Summer, hardly ever get one in the house if I'm careful.....

cut the grass out back

and then went to the library, then finally got to reading the newspaper.....should be a little cooler today than it was over the weekend.....I had a tostada for lunch Sunday instead of corned beef sandwich.....but back to the sandwich today I think.....it didn't rain Sunday evening, but it got cool enough for people to be sitting out on porches and riding around on bikes and golf carts....walking dogs, etc.....as the street lights came on and the bats and fireflys came out.....clouds piled up catching the last rosy rays of sunset in their heights....poetic gloaming, or whatever.....better than sitting in and watching more fussing about empty seats at the Games.....did they just build too many seats maybe?

Windows open, some breeze

Sunny and bright Sunday morning.......cicadas making a racket....this weather makes me lazy and listless....even more so than usual.....had my French toast and sausage Sunday breakfast....pretty soon I'll need to buy more syrup.....found a freebie on kindle that sounds good, but the charge is low so I'll wait a while before I start reading that....it's a sea story from 1915.....I'm already burned out on the Games.....there's just too many events coming one after the other, can't seem to get interested.....the eight man crew race the USA won was cool though....there were twins on board, reminded me of when S and D were pulling oars for San Diego State....I guess Old David is up in the Sierra still, hiking the mountain passes....I couldn't do that I don't think.....I'll stick to walking on level sidewalks, for safety's sake....I can have corned beef sandwich and fritos again for lunch, with a glass of chilled white wine with a lime wedge in it....after three nights of tacos, I'll use up the beef chow mien leftovers for supper today....

113 degree heat index

The weather station at the airport burned out again around one this afternoon....stopped reporting then....there's another station at the 385&221 ....near the Walmart distribution center....it's showing the 113 right now.....so the AC keeps running here at the house....been watching some Olympics , and playing mog...and playing guitar and playing piano and reading a library book....anything you can do inside where it's cool.....cooked a couple of yellow corn tortillas sort of

crispy, and broke them up in the bottom of a bowl and then layered on frijoles, seasoned ground beef, guacamole, cheese, lettuce, cilantro, sour cream, olives, and taco sauce.....tasty and filling....anybody remember the taco cup at Naugle's? Anybody remember Naugle's ? It looks nice enough outside with blue sky and some puffy clouds....but you go out on the porch and you are not going to be comfortable for more than a few minutes....not me anyway......sure is quiet in the neighborhood....everybody, even the dogs, must be chillin

went to walmart

for a few odds and ends.....thought about doing the back yard, but I guess I'll leave that to Monday, since it should be a little cooler by then.....watched the opening ceremony through roku/nowheretv/bbcnews....real time and no commercials.....so that's how I'll watch the games when I can, instead of channel 4......another taco plate last night, and today maybe a taco bowl or tostada kinda thing....got sour cream and olives this morning while out.....it's just too muggy to consider exercise right now, don't feel like doing any more walking today.....it rained before sunset, and there was a bit of a rainbow, and then more lightning and drizzle....it did cool it off enough by dusk to open the windows and turn off the AC......riding lawn mowers cost a lot, but I should get real and face that I won't be able to do exhausting things safely in advanced age....which is upon us....my library books are due Monday I think....one of them is just silly so I don't think I'll try to finish it.....might have corned beef with avocado for lunch...

going to be hot again today

maybe even hotter than yesterday.....no frijoles, just a plate of four tacos for supper....excellent....and the corned beef at lunch was a good idea too....the City posted a picture on FB of the crowd at the dance in the evening....the square looked pretty well filled up....I thought it was too warm and muggy to walk over there....didn't even sit out on the porch very long to listen, went back inside where I had the air on.....it was 80 in the kitchen at breakfast, with the ceiling fan on....it's already too hot to mess with cutting grass out back, maybe there will be another cloudy morning sometime soon to take care of that chore.....the avocado I used yesterday was tasty and just ripe.....

heat advisory this afternoon

going to be up around 100 again.....I cut the grass out front early this morning....'bout wore myself out what with the sun and humidity....but it looks OK now.....beef chow mien came out tasty....enough of that left for another meal.....today I'll make some beef tacos, maybe with frijoles on the side.....for lunch today it will be a corned beef sandwich, I used the last of the Bacon Spam yesterday.....with slaw on the side.....there's a band tonight over on the town square....it might still be pretty hot when they start around 7.....but there's only a 20% chance of rain this evening, so I guess the show will go on....ran the AC last night right before bedtime to get the place pretty cool, slept pretty well....

overcast, cooler

some rain yesterday evening, but the heavier storms missed here.....and this morning stuff coming down off the mountains slid just east of here, except for a few drops....but we did get some cool wind and cloud cover....so I walked both walks, and went grocery shopping, and read the Wednesday paper....beef chow mien will be for supper today, and then it will be tacos for a while....takes a while for me to use up a package of tortillas....good looking avocados on sale....got a couple of those and a couple limes, and cilantro....lettuce, cheese....frijoles....corned beef for lunches....and I've got to work on all that slaw for lunches too.....slaw is good roughage....got my guitar magazine yesterday, so that was something to read in the afternoon, and it always has some ideas in it that I can try out.....so some guitar playing got done too....and some piano playing....watched something from 1976 called Swashbuckler.....a pretty cheesy Hollywood movie with an all-star cast.....rather bizarre....if you pull it up on Netflix, make sure you read the credits....and then try to spot the actors in their cameos....James Earl Jones, Henry Morgan? Couldn't top that with anything on TV, so I read a book 'til bedtime.....

hotter but less humid

that's the prediction for today.....expect 100 degree heat index in the afternoon.....been cleaning house some this morning, and have a small load in the washing machine....the strip steak and shrimp with slaw made a good meal....I can mix up more slaw for today, and finish off the ribs....and then it's a Wednesday and I can start all over again on what to eat for a week....I still have fixin's for another chow mien.....and maybe I can look at mexican of some sort.....just simple beef tacos sound good to me.....I need bread this week, and maybe cheese....and paper napkins, not many of them left.....the City is out painting blue marks where the water lines are up and down Academy.....I talked to the meter reader the other day and he says the first phase of the Mill Village water line project will be the section north of Academy and east of Bailey, going over as far as Jefferson perhaps.....there will be new water and sewer lines installed, and the houses will get new hook-ups with the new radio meters, so they will be able to just drive along and collect their data for billing....this ought to be interesting....the existing infrastructure goes back to the days when the mill-company owned and did everything, back to the Depression era in other words....so the work needs doing for sure....

another muggy monday

is there a pop song in that? the weather girl said there would be the evening storms like clock-work again this week, with a high over Georgia moving more hot swamp air towards here.....so sweaty walking, but mitigated by some wind, so it wasn't exhausting sweaty.....got "bands similar to Iron Butterfly" streaming through MOG....kinda bizarre so far....but rockin'......I'm thinking of eating the stir-fry leftovers for lunch, just for something different.....could do steak and shrimp for supper......sat up reading until the pages got blurry around ten, then went to bed.....the AC is working fine.....was close to 100 heat index Sunday evening, but cool and dry inside....nothing of interest in the mail this morning......solicitations......

no rain saturday after all

looked like it might, but it didn't.....saw a thing in the Advertiser that they throw on the lawn Sunday mornings saying the storm Wednesday had dropped 1.23 inches in Clinton....measured at the City plant, which is maybe a half mile from my house.....so that would be pretty accurate for Bailey Street.....that was the night parts of town lost power.....no wind at all this morning, so I've closed up the house, since there won't be any cross-ventilation to keep it from getting stifling by late afternoon....maybe we'll see how the repaired AC handles the situation.....I enjoyed the stir-fry meal....there's some left over....did not enjoy the Angels game much, they got knocked around by the Rangers, and so fall another half game behind them....but they were saying during the game that the Angels are expected to make the play-offs.....this year there will be an extra wild-card team or something.....so today I can have baby-back ribs and raisin slaw for Sunday supper....

storm clouds west

of here, might rain around noon? 77 and overcast right now....the steak last night was a good one, and I got it cooked just right....went well with a Napa Valley cabernet....I'm going to try the stir-fry scallops and snow-peas this evening.....Rangers are at Angels on the Fox Saturday game....they are saying highs remaining in the mid 80s today......I did my walking, for the paper and then later through downtown again and back by the Post Office, etc....there were signs up for a yard sale not far away, but I didn't go look at it.....

the breeze

is making it nice this morning....that and some overcast kept it cool enough to go and mow the back yard....took until ten roughly....so no rain last night, but they are still saying 60 % for later today.....there's a real estate supplement that comes in the paper every week, with various developments featured....somebody up in the Greenville area is building Craftsman style homes with garages on an alley behind the cottages....what is old is new again.....and there are four or five on premise consumption liquor permits applied for in the classifieds every day....up in Greenville County.....so I haven't checked the mailbox yet today....probably nothing there....maybe the steak dinner will get done this evening.....and I still have a stir-fry option in play.....

thrown off schedule

the AC guy got here at my suppertime.....AC guys are busy right now....he had the new fan motor, but after it was installed, the air still wasn't blowing through the vents....so he checked the ducts under the house, and then checked the "core".....which is a thing like a car radiator that the air has to pass through....it was dirty and clogged up, so it got cleaned and now the air seems to be working....hopefully with the new motor and a clean core it will be more efficient, and the electric bill will be reduced somewhat....we will see....so it's hot and muggy outside, but alright inside....I just had a couple of cold ribs and slaw for a little supper, instead of cooking my steak dinner, since things were already out of kilter .....the AC guy liked the piano....he had studied it for eight years as a child, but had quit it because his teacher wanted him to play only classical music.....he lives out in the Mountville area....

burned out

the fan motor for the forced air.....I turned on the AC yesterday, but it wasn't blowing any air....so the guy from Burns Services took a look at it and said it needed a new fan motor....he thinks he can get a new one installed some time today.....probably be a couple hundred altogether he estimated roughly.....so I about burned myself out this morning after the newspaper walk, 'cause I went right out and cut away the bushes near the unit so they will have room to work on it....took all that to the curb and then ran the mower on the front part of the yard.....took until around ten....there was some overcast and some breeze, but still got pretty beat up by the humidity.....last night I had baby-back ribs, half an ear of white corn, and raisin slaw.....today I might have strip steak dinner.....heck of a storm in the evening Wednesday, parts of town lost power they say, but it was all back on by ten.....the City put posts with pics on Facebook....my power stayed on, but the internet got knocked out briefly by lightning.....it just takes a few minutes to reset.....it will be like 93 and then a storm will come along and it will go down to 73.....and with a few windows open and the ceiling fans on in a couple rooms you can drag that 73 inside before bedtime....that works.....

more evening storms

made the internet glitch for a couple of minutes when lightning hit pretty close down the block it looked like.....poured rain for a while too.....at the store I got snow peas, water chestnuts, stir-fry noodles.....going to use up some scallops in a chinese style dish....and the deli baby-back ribs were marked down this week....ribs without heating up the kitchen, just microwave a few at a time....and new york strip steak, white corn, bag of cole slaw fixings.....enough for the week I think.....already 85 heat index this morning, so the walking was sweaty.....it says cloudy for tomorrow morning, so maybe I can cut the weeds out front....of course it said foggy for this morning, and it wasn't....we'll see....watched a good French documentary about Django Reinhardt .....lots of slick guitar playing involved.....now I've got the local paper to read....in case you missed it, Miss Laurens County won the Miss South Carolina contest.....

Pastrami sub for two-fifty

Good old Walmart.....I remembered what I wanted to look at....an electric hedge trimmer....they have a Black and Decker for thirty bucks.....I didn't get one today though, going to consider it some more....but that's cheap enough.....and they did have the pastrami sub, and I got some of their trail mix, etc....minor ache in my right wrist.....have to do with piano pounding? They have the summer camp thing going across the street at the church, so it's sounding like I live near a school playground....kids screeching and the coaches whistle .......or the councilor or whatever....I've had the brace on my knee the last few days....I might have tweaked it messing with piano moving...but right now it feels back to normal pretty much....forty percent chance of thunderstorms this afternoon....

rained long and hard

after I watched the news last night, some time around then anyway.....so I sat out on the porch and watched that for a spell.....today is supposed to be a lot like yesterday.....70 degrees and 70 dew point this morning early.....so too humid to mess with any yard-work.....I had thought of something I might find at Walmart, but now I can't remember what it was.....I might drive over that way anyhow, since I can't think of much in the kitchen to fix for supper today.....they have those big sub sandwiches cheap over there, you can have half for a lunch and half for a supper....I've done that before.....I don't remember if they have pastrami or not....that sounds good.....

heat lightnin'

a line of storms came down through the Upstate in the middle of the afternoon....cooled things off with wind, and with hiding the sun....but we didn't get rain right here....not yet anyway....I think I'll make chicken fried steak, hash-browns, and green beans for supper....there's country gravy left-over I could use up....nothing in the mail today.....ceiling fans are working, don't need the air on at all today maybe.....

007/Stones

It's 50 years for the Rolling Stones, and 50 years for James Bond movies....when are the Stones going to do a song for the beginning of a Bond movie? Inquiring minds need to know.....well, overnight low of 72.....100 % humidity again for the newspaper walk....some nice breeze for the park walk later....ate my apple in the cool of the shady backyard....bag of green apples from Chile....guess I can do something with cube steak and fried taters for supper.....if things go to pattern, there will be late afternoon showers or storms this week.....

way too much fun

I called Dan for his birthday.... he had been to Farmer Boy for breakfast....chicken fried steak, etc...and later he got Face Time going on his touch iPod and that way I could show him the piano....I'm having way too much fun with the piano....I'll read for a while, but then put down the book and go torture the ivories again for a while.....I watched a thing on YouTube that showed a basic blues scale.....and just took off from there....don't know if I'm doing it properly, but it works for me.....good thing about living alone is that there's no one to judge or criticize....I love those old movies where the guy is in New York or whatever and he just starts ripping on a piano at some cocktail party and thus gets the girl and a contract at Radio City, etc....that's what this thing reminds me of......not a rock and roll fantasy as much as a speakeasy jazz fantasy.....it's cooling off now as the sun goes down, but the forecast is for more hot and muggy coming this week because of a Bermuda High off the coast which will channel heat and wet all the way to here in the hinterlands....fixed myself scallops and grits for Sunday supper....that worked.....

some wind kept it cool

Saturday evening, but the rain clouds missed this neighborhood.....watched the Braves game, that was interesting....but the stadium looked half empty.....well, it must have been danged hot and muggy there that time of day.....sat out on the porch around ten and watched people walking dogs ....better than walking them in the sun I guess.....on my second walk yesterday it started raining on me....so I headed back home....and it stopped raining....the sunday supplement magazine this morning promised on the cover to tell you how to make a grilled cheese sandwich that wasn't "just for kids" .....their idea was to put tomato in it....ugh....my idea is to put grilled onion and spam in it....maybe today's supper will be scallops and grits.....I keep falling asleep while I'm reading in the afternoon....just can't keep my eyes open in this enervating weather.....

more piano

Searching images of Estey pianos, there's a nice image of a 1938 model that looks exactly like my piano.....so the thing fits in really well with the rest of my pre-war decor.....all my art deco and depression era furniture, rugs, prints, etc....and the cottage itself of course has the same vibe, having been built in those days

foggy saturday morning

100% humidity, 73F.....Bastille Day.....as the Tea Party says: "let them eat cake..." why should we waste our taxes feeding the poor? well, food stamp renewal finally did pass I think.....Mets at Braves is on this evening.....this muggy weather has me feeling wrung out....put on a fresh shirt and it's soaked through in a few minutes ......well, I should walk before the fog burns off... and I need to sweep and vacuum....more stuff gets tracked in when the lawn is wet seems like.....they got the final layer on the parking lots before it started raining yesterday.....now they need to paint the lines and put up the lights.....should be ready when the new semester starts? I might fix a cube-steak sandwich for lunch.....and rib-eye and fries for supper? There's a potato in the cupboard that needs to be used for something pretty soon.....Dan's birthday tomorrow.....

I should have known

that I wouldn't wait 'til tomorrow when started thinking about that piano....went back and bought it for a hundred, and then gave the guys at the apartment house twenty bucks to move it into my living room.....it's an Estey....an American company....from the serial number it was made in 1941....it came with a bench that opens up for the music.....I think it might be worth more than I gave for it....maybe not....the girl I bought it from had no idea how old it was....it had been her aunt's.....she said her aunt got it around 1980 as far as she knew.....it all works, I'm sure it needs tuning, but I have a tin ear anyway, so what the hell.....

piano?

I was out walking and at the apartment house across from the mill they have a piano out on the front porch marked at $150.....the girl said they would negotiate.....it's an old small kind, a console? It's not very tall at all.....if it's still there tomorrow maybe I'll offer $100.....it's only a block from my house....and I went again to visit Aunt Addie this morning.....took the iPad....and yes, they do have wi-fi in the nursing home....the front desk gave me the password and it worked fine so I could show her the photos from the reunion and from the Charleston expedition....and pictures of Jameson....and old Tingle Family things, etc....Aunt Addie seems pretty good to me....she does have to search for words, or struggle to get them out some....she says Uncle Ed doesn't trust his legs enough to get around much anymore....it's his balance sort of, from what I remember from the last time I saw him......they don't know if they are going to try to stay in their house with 24 hour help, or if they will just move into some elderly facility.....apparantly the insurance is paying for where she is now, but I imagine there's the usual 90 day limit on a global for the current incident....don't know really, just remembering how it worked before.....

got it done

in the middle of the day it was still 70 outside, overcast and with a breeze.....the grass was kinda damp but what I did was set the mower deck all the way up and just take a couple inches off the top rather than pushing through the wet weeds....lopped the tops of the dandelions....that's all you can see of the back from the street anyway, the yellow dandelion tops....so now it looks like it's been taken care of.....unless you look too close.....the band tonight over at the train tracks has been cancelled, due to thunderstorm forecasts .....they will play a make-up date in August instead....grilled spam and cheddar for lunch....got some scallops defrosting in a bowl in the fridge for later today.....after that work in the yard, there might be an afternoon nap.....

will it start raining

if I go out and start cutting the grass in the back yard? It rained again in the middle of the night, so the grass is damp....but there's a wind, so maybe it's drying up enough to cut....tough decisions.....it's cool enough for working anyway, low 70s this morning.....might only get to low 80s today.....I had chicken fried steak, biscuit and gravy, and cut green beans yesterday.....today I'll do a small piece of rib-eye, a handful of scallops, and an unknown veggie side....maybe curried cream corn? Reading online, you have to make sure the scallops are patted dry before you put them in the iron skillet with the olive oil.....so that they sear nicely, instead of steaming at all....if they are wet and steam, then that's when they end up chewy like an eraser or something.....these are small scallops, they should sear quickly.....didn't have to run the AC Wednesday at all....probably won't need it today either....the meter reader will be around soon....

stopped raining

by the time I got out of the store.....and on the radar it doesn't look like much is headed this way right now, so I'll go out and walk some more....did get the bay scallops on sale....so steak and scallops.....scallops and shells? scallops and grits? and I got some cube steak....chicken fried steak with rice and gravy, green beans....got white wine in a box to put in the fridge, since a cool glass of wine sounded good in this muggy weather....the gas bill was in the mailbox when I got back, so I paid that....all the other mail is people trying to sell me insurance.....

light rain

started to drizzle right as I was getting back with the paper.....rained a lot last night, I went out on the porch to watch that for a while because that All Star game was pretty dull really.....the power went off for a while during the night, but was back on at 3:20 ......so I'm off to the store I suppose....see what I can find.....

storms in the afternoon

severe thunderstorm warning here now....maybe it will get rained-cooled and the AC will turn off....for $2.38 I got two tacos and a "senior drink" at Taco Bell for lunch.....just for something different....I might fix shrimp and chicken with potato salad for supper....there's shrimp in the freezer that needs to be used sometime, might as well be today.....just heard some thunder, and it's getting pretty clouded over.....it's cocktail hour....scotch and soda.....

storms last night

clouds this morning....mid-70s so I worked on the front yard, but ran out of steam before I did anything in the back.....maybe Thursday I'll do that part.....I'm gaining weight eating fried chicken and biscuits, but that's almost gone so I can figure something better for next week....scallops were in the ad from the grocery store at a good price.....and I haven't made a batch of slaw in a while....it might rain more this afternoon, from the looks of things.....it had started to rain when I went to bed, so I slept better than usual it seems .....there's some breeze, so I've got windows open....and ceiling fans on....

maybe tuesday

there will be a break in the heat wave.....a front is coming down, a low that might bring some clouds and rain.....so I looked at the yard and decided to wait and see if it's cool enough next morning to get out the trimmer and the mower.....stayed almost 80 overnight....ran the bedroom ceiling fan at a higher speed and slept well enough.....I'm going to have to get orange juice before Wednesday.....I'll go over that way shortly.....there might be enough breeze to make the park walk bearable, we'll see.....

too hot outside

all day long.....the AC has been running since lunch time....temps in the mid and high 90s with heat index over 100 almost the whole time....so I've only stepped out the door a couple times, and come right back in.....so maybe I'll finish a book today, nothing much else to do....

a sunday

didn't cool off much overnight.....80 at the breakfast table....french toast and spam....sweaty by the time I got back with the newspaper....I can have a spam and cheese biscuit for lunch, and that will be the last of the spam....and there won't be much cheese left either.....so a dead quiet sunday morning.....clear, some wind, humid.....not much of interest in the newspaper.....

feels like 98F

plenty hot and humid outside, got the air running inside....had a good video chat with the brothers early in the afternoon.....and then read some on kindle....and sort of fell asleep sitting up once there I think.....had some cold fowl and biscuit for a little supper, with some merlot....so I'll catch some overseas news and then later there will be Braves baseball on the tele....which will probably last until close to bedtime, if I last that long.....and then it will be a Sunday.....

farmers market

nice enough morning drive over to Laurens to take a look.....around 80 and high humidity, but cool enough driving with the wind-wing open.....nothing much at the market on the square....sweet corn, squash, tomatoes, watermelon....didn't buy anything.....just walked around some.....yesterday I got cold fried chicken, potato salad, and some monster "home-style" biscuits for food until Wednesday.....one of those dang biscuits could be a meal by itself.....the kind that will just sort of fall in half, you don't need a knife to split them.....by suppertime I had turned the air on, and it stayed on 'til bedtime.....muggy night.....but now they are saying it should cool back to seasonal temps during the coming week.....high 80s by evening, chance of evening showers or thunder storms of course.....on my BBC news they were showing England flooding....if the pattern persists, the Olympics might be all underwater events.....well, I got sweaty enough just running the vacuum, so now I'll just sit down a bit more.....

was cooler this morning

clouded over from last night's storms.....so I got some walking done OK, not too hot to be more or less comfortable.....I need to go to the store and get some easy hot weather suppers....maybe buy a cold chicken and some kind of salad at the deli section.....it's probably going to be getting close to 100 by suppertime again today.....the storms killed a couple of campers last night in the Great Smokies.....that's scary, dangerous weather when you're out camping.....trees falling on you.....I'm too lazy to get up and go camping anymore.....I'll just wait at home to see if a tree wants to fall on me.....gravity increases as you get older, so the ground gets harder to sleep on, and to get up off of in the morning.....

Ten at night

It cooled off a lot when the storms started moving from north to south, but the rain cells all slithered around Clinton without getting us wet here at all....hit and miss pop up storms.....so folks are shooting fireworks off again tonight.....they must have had some left over....or maybe the fireworks stands were selling at half price today or something.....I had a can of chili over fritos and topped with onion and cheese for supper....didn't watch much tele tonight, been reading......

High 90s

Severe thunderstorm watch until nine tonight....can see some stuff on the radar, but not real close to here......steamy outside, so I've been staying in with the air on.....I did try to walk some more before lunch, but cut it short, just walked around the block, not around the park.....

landscapers

they planted a few trees around the edges of the new parking lots.....they put drip hose around them, but this heat wave looks like it's killed them.....more brown leaves than green leaves .....maybe they'll revive.....this morning as I was going for the paper I stopped and talked to the older neighbor who is out walking sometimes.....he said that the land that's now the church parking lot used to be a brick-yard......and the vacant lot next to the auto body shop used to have a grist mill on it.....the mill-stone used to lie there at the corner a long time after the mill building was gone.....there's a mill-stone over in front of the museum now, but he didn't think it's the same one.....and there was a saw-mill over on the north side of town where the company got the lumber to build the mill village houses.....all yellow pine is what they used.....the company used to turn the electricity off after nine at night, way back when.....they gave you the water and power....there weren't any meters until the City took over services.....It's hot and muggy this morning, so I'm wrestling with the idea of going out walking some more.....I might just stay inside, or go sit out back in the shade.....the food bank over at the corner is closed this week, and a sign on the door says there will be no USDA food day on the second Wednesday like there usually is....don't know what's going on with that.....

big thunderstorm in the evening

while the news was still on.....went out on the porch to watch for a while, it was really coming down hard.....so we got rain-cooled and I could turn off the AC and open some windows.....30% chance of the same thing this afternoon.....mid 90s predicted this week and the next I think is what the weather lady was saying.....I guess I don't really need to go grocery shopping like I usually do on Wednesday, I've got enough food on hand for a while....I'll take a holiday from my routine, since I don't have anything else to take a holiday from.....

"dangerous heat continues"

that's what it says on the front page of the paper....our cooler day Monday was a fluke thing due to clouds leftover from the severe Sunday storms.....today no such clouds, just heat haze....so I went out early before it gets too hot and got some hamburger and some buns....and an ear of corn....that will make for my 4th celebration.....and for some other lunches....so now I'm set to just stay inside where it's cool and read or something......I might need to go out sometime for more ice, but maybe not 'til tomorrow.....

record heat, unexpected storms

It was 107 at GSP, an all-time high for any day of the year in their records.....it was brutal outside yesterday until around supper time when a line of storms formed across the state with more vigor than had been foreseen by the models.....so it poured here for a while, with wind and lightning....some trees down in Laurens, and in Cross Hill.....and lighter rain on through the night....drizzle stopped in time for my early walk, which was pleasant enough what with the rain-cooled air and a little breeze.....overcast.....traffic looked like a Sunday, not a Monday.....I guess some people take a week off for the 4th? I know a couple of businesses had it in the paper that they were gone this week.....So it's library day, and I finished my books yesterday afternoon....they say it will get triple-digets again today.....

sultry sunday so far

got down to 75 overnight.....I didn't even try to get to sleep 'til midnight.....not good sleeping weather.....but then I did get a decent sleep after all.....with the ceiling fan on over the bed.....at least the power stayed on around here.....those poor people up around DC in the heat with no electricity.....and storm damage to deal with.....or the folks out in Colorado, with neighborhoods burned down.....been there, done that.....the photos in the paper reminded me of the fires around Escondido a few years ago.....I just went ahead and turned the air on, it was getting around 85 in the entry hall, where the thermostat is......think I'll have a peanut butter and cheddar sandwich for lunch.....had french toast and spam slices for breakfast......the two cups of coffee had me sweating before I even got out the door for the paper.....Dodgers looked terrible last night.....the All Star break is soon, and then the season gets serious.....maybe the Angels can get something going over the next couple months....