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Monday, July 8, 2019

It's going to be a rip-roarin' summer!

Lawsymercy.  First, let me state here that I will NEVER HAVE ANOTHER YARD SALE AGAIN.  PERIOD.  I am slated to help my sister with hers, but, as for one of my own?  No way, Jose.

Our office closed early on Wednesday, so I beat a hasty retreat home - and turned on all the fans.  It was a bona fide heat wave with high heat indexes and it was HUMID.  My least favorite combination.  Once the sun started to sink, I fired up the oven and baked my two pies for the library fundraiser - rhubarb custard.  One of my favorite recipes and easy-peasy.  Once they cooled (took hours), into the fridge and the dogs and I were trying to sleep in front of the fans.
IN the sun?  "Slimmie"?

Even with 93% humidity, The Pat
must be covered.  It makes me want
to break out in hives.
The Fourth dawned with the same amount of heat/humidity, so I opted to drop the pies off with a library trustee and then crept into the dark house, with all windows closed, curtains drawn and fans on full.  Amazingly, my neighbor - he of the semi-automatic weaponry - was a mere shadow of his usual Fourth of July self.  Last year, I truly thought we had been invaded.  There were explosions into the wee hours.  This year?  I guess the heat wave must have gotten to him, or his fuses were damp.  There were a few bangs, but that was it.  Bless him.

Friday was up to VT for errand-running, change getting, a short parental visit, and back to start sorting out and putting out the yard sale stuff.  It did not help that the heat wave persisted.  Thanks to my own genetic makeup, compounded by Doxycycline, I could only spend about 10 minutes at a go outside, before having to retreat and cool down.  That made the set-up process excruciatingly long and frustrating.  Have I mentioned that I get cranky in humidity?  Ditto Saturday, where it was even more humid, if that was at all possible without rain.  Speaking of which, in the middle of the day, a cold front moved through and there was much racing around with tarps and bungee cords.  I managed to get everything battened down before the rain.
Nightly "Cheezies" - the big blue one
is mine.  The little, bitty cheezie is Slimmie's.
As I sank into my damp chair to enjoy the sound of rain on the metal roof, my phone rang - the caller was from Tucson, so I let it go into voicemail.  I get so many spam calls, that I don't answer anything that doesn't have a name attached to it.  When the caller left a voicemail, I listened and it was my cousin, Kitt, whom I have not seen in 25+ years!  She, her husband, their daughter and SIL, granddaughter and grandson, were motoring through, on their way to Boston and could they stop to see me in the morning.

Heck yeah.

The morning of the yard sale dawned gloriously un-humid and cool.  Birds sang.  Winds wafted.  I ran around like a maniac.  I was almost set up when 1) my sister arrived (yay!), 2) my neighbor arrived with even more 'junk' (erm), 3) a 24' flashy motor home pulled into the driveway.  Luckily, they arrived early, so I had time to talk, laugh, show them around, and hug my cousin mercilessly.  Then they were off and my sister stayed for a visit, while we waited for the crowds.  And waited.  The bad news was that very few people showed up.  The good news was that I got a lot of weeding done!  I positioned myself under the big fir tree in my front yard and weeded as long as I could take the sun, then flopped in a chair and listened to my audio book.  I gave the dogs marrow bones (frozen, so they could gnaw on them and cool down at the same time), infused some filtered water with mint, made some cold brew, tidied up here, tidied up there.  Twiddled my thumbs.  Sighed mightily.  I finally had to call it quits, as far as sitting outside, shade or not, and went in to do housework.  I figured the dogs would sound the alarm should anyone arrive.
Cukes weeded - except for the middle.
In the early part of the day, it was just peaceful - with birds flitting about.  A young catbird found me fascinating and we sat about five feet apart, sizing each other up.  I think they are such pretty birds.  The only sour note was the endless cacophony of young crows, pestering their parents in the chicken yard.  I'm not sure if it is a Murder of Crows, or Let's Murder Some Crows.

I also received news over the holiday that another close friend has ended a chapter in her life - she will be staying with us for a few weeks, while she works out her next adventure.  She comes with her bestie, Fae, an 11 year old fluffy, four-pawed girl dog.  It will be interesting to see how I do, going from semi-feral, semi-hermit to roomie.  And how the pups do with a new face in the pack.  Given that Rosie is the personification of positive energy and sunshine, I think I will do fine.  I can always hide in my room!

16 comments:

jaz@octoberfarm said...

i had one yard sale once and that was it for me. all we have had is rain, heat and humidity. i feel like a wet sponge.

Susan said...

If it weren't for my love of tomatoes, I would wish away summer altogether. I am counting the days until September.

Nancy In Boise said...

I hate humidity! Bummer on the yard sale...

ellen abbott said...

humid. HA! you don't know humid. all my garage sale stuff goes straight to the resale shop that supports the women's shelter. do not pass GO, do not get $100. whatever money I might make in a garage sale is never worth all the prep and sitting out there.

Joanne Noragon said...

This heat keeps me asleep!

coffeeontheporchwithme said...

I hear ya on yard sales!! I too, will never have another yard sale. Hope you get a break in the heat. When things are hot here, they are almost always humid. -Jenn

Michelle said...

Boo, hiss on the sale flop and the flop sweat! Yay for visits with family and friends, and getting a lot done while waiting around!

Susan said...

At least you have your stuff sorted so all is not lost. One of my pups has to sleep under a blanket, head included, in fact the head is the most important part, we call her Polly the Parrot. Not to her face as she is the persnickety one.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

We stopped doing yard sales when we moved here. Too many people looking around the property and Hubby said No way. Too many crazy people on drugs or looking to come back to steal anything that wasn't for sale.

Mama Pea said...

Are you saying you didn't sell diddly-sqwat at the garage sale?? After ALL that work in preparation! What the . . . ?

Ed said...

Well at least the garage sale wasn't a total flop since you got some listening and reading done. Other than the fact that you probably didn't sell much, it sounds like my type of garage sale. The busy ones are real moral dampers.

Retired Knitter said...

I hear you on the humidity. I live in Maryland - the land of humidity! I hate summer. I am a winter gal. And as afar as yard sales - I went that route in the 1970s ... I was a whole heck of a lot younger then and I remember how much work it was. Not for me anymore.

Rain said...

Hi Susan :) Oh I would NEVER do a garage sale...only because I can't handle being around people...especially people who touch my stuff and want to haggle lol...and if it were in humidity, all the worse! I would be so cranky I'd likely tell people to go shop elsewhere! I hope you made a little scratch from the sale though.

Your Pat is just like Jack...even if it's 100% humidity in sweltering heat, he needs to be under the blankies. I have to monitor him though, when he starts to snore too loud, I slip them off him so he can breathe better.

Casa Mariposa said...

You always have a million things happening at once! I hate garage sales. I just dump stuff off at a local thrift store and am done with it all.

Leigh said...

The last time I had a garage sale was decades ago! Fortunately, we have no place for people to park, so even if I was tempted it couldn't happen.

Your weather sounds like ours right now. That's the worst part of summer.

R's Rue said...

Praying.
www.rsrue.blogspot.com