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No one has started Sunday, so here it is. It was 98 yesterday but only going up to 91 today and getting even cooler tomorrow. Glad I am in Idaho at 4,000 feet! Going to tackle final exams and then maybe go for bike ride. If not, will go riding tomorrow.

Sorry to hear it is so hot in so many places in the west. Hopefully, it will start cooling off and acting like fall soon!

As the rest of the summer, it's a crazy weekend here. We might top the sales from the July 4th weekend! But we'll likely end the weekend with snow later tomorrow. So maybe some people will leave today. And the rest should be a mass exodus tomorrow. I'm ready for this season to be over! And I hope we don't see anymore 90's!

Judy, enjoy your bike ride whichever day you go!

Californians, keep your eyes on those fires! And everyone everywhere stay safe.

The storm left my house a couple of hours ago, my sister, her granddaughter and gd's husband. They were at a motel in Galveston most of last week with the men going back to work in DeRidder. I don't know how many hours it was but that was stupid to go so far just to have air and water. My nephew's wife was the one that thought she should be in Galveston. It's a good thing I wasn't there or they wouldn't be talking to me. Friday my sister went home with her granddaughter and gd's husband. My sister has a problem with her legs and feet swelling and she didn't have any business doing all that traveling. Her legs are so swollen they think she should go to a hospital. Of course by that time nothing was open and all the hospitals in Lake Charles and DeRidder are closed because of the hurricane. She calls me at 8:00 Friday night asking about a hospital in Lafayette. Another 3 house from where she was. I don't know what time they got to the hospital in Lafayette but they showed up at my house at 5:00am. They all go to bed and sleep until noon. I didn't know if or how long they planned to stay. I hadn't really done much food shopping since I evacuated so it was slim pickens food wise. I went to the grocery store and fixed lunch for them. They decided to wash some clothes and my washer quit pumping water out and started overflowing into the floor. It flooded my utility room and almost every towel I own was wet cleaning up the water. They didn't have power at home so decided to stay. About 8:00 they decide to go to town to eat instead of eating left overs from lunch. I have been out to eat with that bunch before so declined to go. The gd weighs about 300 pounds and has stomach problems. They order an appetizer, each a meal and dessert. When everyone is ready to leave the gd has to spend 20 to 30 minutes in the bathroom while everyone waits. I won't ever be going out to eat with them if I can help it. Since they got such a late start I doubted they would find any place in Abbeville and sure enough they went to Lafayette. They were over 3 hours getting back. This morning I put a roast in the slow cooker and fixed lunch because I knew they would sleep until noon. After lunch they decide to go home but first the gd and husband have to go to town. They don't get back here until 4:30 and start loading up. They noticed they had a low tire so boy did I hurry to find an air pump to air up the tire. All of this traveling is in a car with a problem with the ignition so they don't know if it will start or how long they have to mess with it to get it to start.

All the commotion going on had Sugar upset and she wouldn't eat. I think she was so afraid I was going to leave. Hopefully she will settle down tonight. She and I are use to being alone.

Hope everyone has a good holiday weekend.

Martha

Oh, Martha, I'm so sorry. I'm glad they've left and hopefully things will start calming down there.

Walking up to my rig from the store with Ty was eventful a few hours ago. First a squirrel taunted him. If not on leash, that squirrel might have been sorry. As it is I held Ty tight until I knew he wouldn't reach the end of the leash in pursuit. And up the tree the squirrel went. So we continued towards home, and there in the road was a turkey. It ran as soon as it saw Ty. Luckily Ty doesn't feel the same need to chase and conquer with the turkey (or the deer) but he sure would have been happier off leash.

It amazes me how early we're getting dark. And with the temp drop expected for tomorrow, I think I need to pull out a sweatshirt to wear. It'll be interesting to see how much snow we get tomorrow evening and overnight. Higher elevations will get more than we will here. We desperately need the rain and any moisture we can get. We've been very lucky no fires have broken out here.

Bethers wrote:
It amazes me how early we're getting dark. And with the temp drop expected for tomorrow, I think I need to pull out a sweatshirt to wear. It'll be interesting to see how much snow we get tomorrow evening and overnight. Higher elevations will get more than we will here. We desperately need the rain and any moisture we can get. We've been very lucky no fires have broken out here.

Snow? That sounds wonderful. It was 112 here today at 5:00 pm. Probably the same tomorrow.

But too cold isn't fun either.

Stay warm!

Anne

In SLC it's predicted to be 66 on Tuesday and snow up in the mountains it was 100 today!!! I am sitting here in a A/C cooled house wearing my jacket as it's too cold not used to it...
as I read I think of things to reply to then by the time I get to it I can't remember what or who I was going to reply to at all...
Martha .... you can now sigh a sigh of relief hopefully Sugar will be able to eat now... when there schedule is upset I think it bothers them... I can almost guarantee that Shadow has not eaten very much at all since I left him at my dd's on Friday... I will be back up there tomorrow so hopefully he will eat then...
and hopefully will be able to go home on Weds...
the kids got the wall painted and the fire place painted this weekend I thought it was the garage they wanted to work on but perhaps they did that or perhaps it was just too hot to work outside...
they are on a Keto diet so volunteered to take sides to his parents house for a cookout... there fridge is on the fritz so we talked about different salads and sil pulled up this one it was really good when he gives me the recipe I will have to post it...
they are watching this movie have no idea what is going on it not a good movie watcher I guess ...
you all have a good day
sheila

Beth, glad you got a busy weekend but sounds like it will come to a screeching halt tomorrow with the snow coming. I am sure you will be more than ready to head out soon!

Martha, I think you could write a comedy show about your family! Glad you and Sugar are alone again and can get back into your normal routine. I am wondering how things are going in the areas hit by the hurricane. Nothing on the news about it since the CA fires and heat wave are taking all the attention now.

Both fires in this area are still out of control. One more day of heat before it cools off some, but then the Santa Anna winds come in which will really fan the flames and spread the fires even faster. One family had just bought an apple orchard in Oak Glen in June. They had to evacuate for the second time in less than a month. I don't know if they lost their orchard but others did. I feel so bad for them. Even if they can replant the trees, it takes years before they can get an apple crop. The farms were set to open for the season yesterday. Such bad timing for them. I guess I am feeling especially sad because I spent several years while growing up, living on an apple orchard and those were some of the best years of my childhood, in the midst of a stressful, dysfunctional family situation.

Another 120 degree day today. I stayed in all day and organized my living room and made magnetic covers for my old AC/heat vents in the floor. The magnetic sheets are white so I covered them with contact paper that is closer to the color of the flooring so they would blend in a little better. After the sun set, I took the trash and recycling to the dumpster and picked up my mail. It was down to 105 by then but still very hot.

The Creek fire up near Fresno spread to 36,000 acres in just 24 hours! The El Dorado fire north of me was started by pyrotechnics for a gender reveal party. Some people just don't have any sense!! The Valley fire near San Diego has burned several homes and still 0% contained. Very sad! Now there is a new fire called the Bobcat fire that broke out this afternoon north of LA.

I got invited to a small dinner party (4 of us) on Wednesday, at a friends place here for a "moving away" party for Candiss. I am thinking of making the pineapple/orange angel food cake to bring with. I have what I need for it but haven't wanted to make it since I can't eat it all myself. This way I can try it out and share it. And I can test out my oven that just got fixed last week.

I was planning to get a Covid test tomorrow so I could get the results before I leave, but they are saying it is taking between 8 and 12 days to get results. So that isn't gonna do me any good. I will just have to be really careful this week at work and while we are on the road. We will both wear masks and she has face shields too that we can use.

Have a good night!

Oh, Martha, I am so sorry you had such a crazy visit from relatives! I love my sons and my grandkids, and I even like most of my cousins, but I am SO glad I live alone!!! Whoever said that older women get lonely because they have an empty nest??

Hope you are more relaxed now and have a better day tomorrow. Hope your washing machine recovers, as well, as poor Sugar.

What a day for everyone! Beth, sounds like your time there is winding down. Will be fun to do something different, I'm sure. Martha, you make me kind of glad I don't have a big family! Barbara, your temperatures make me imagine I'm cooler, we were only 109 today. On the other hand, at after midnight, it was still 86. Pretty warm for a September night! We have had smoke all day, due to those fires to south. I was messaging with a gal in a widow group I'm in, who evacuated her home near Bass Lake, with her kitties and her small trailer, and has no idea if she has a house to go back to. Judy and Anne, I kind of like the larger table, which is easy to read. Have a good week everyone.
Velda

What a day everyone had!

My day was pretty quiet; Impossible to spend much time outside with all the heat (112 here yesterday) and all the smoke. Smoke is very bad again this morning, it is so overcast that it looks like it is getting ready to rain. It isn't.

I am finally getting around to finishing up my second book, a young adult science-fiction fantasy this time. Sixth draft, very hard work, of course. What this actually means is a whole lot of hours spent sitting on my couch with my computer on my lap, madly typing away, trying to get my thoughts on paper while at the same time trying to remember the basic tenets English grammer.

I am having difficult categorizing the new book, as one must do for successful advertising on Amazon. My "Christmas Jones" book has this problem as well. Is it a cowboy story? Is it a Christmas story? Is it a 'Western'? It is kind of all of these things, so doesn't fit neatly into any particular category either (makes Amazon's targeted advertising difficult!).

I have the same problem with my new book, only maybe a bit worse this time (you might think that I would learn!). I have always been fascinated by the extremely close inter-species bond between humans and dogs (a bond that is really quite strange, in the natural order of things, if one thinks deeply about it). I am taking this closeness and running with it.

LOL. I guess I could say the new book is in the "ecology-disaster" category for the sci fi/fantasy genre, but it is also about - kinda - mental telepathy between the main protagonist and her dog. Of course, I don't call her companion a dog in my story. That would be too easy! But a dog it is!

But this does put me right back into the book genre problem. Is it a fantasy novel? A science fiction story? A novel about ecology? Is it a book about mental telepathy? LOL: Is it a book about dogs in outer space ? It's none of these things, and all of them. Again, it makes targeted advertising difficult. And, without targeted advertising, no one will ever find my book among the (literally!) millions of other books sold on Amazon, so I somehow need to get it right.

Have read rather widely about dogs, and their eons-long association with humans. Dog books, both fiction and non, fill my bookshelf. An interesting conundrum always is "Did we influence dogs to be what they are? Or did dogs influence us to be what we are?". There are good arguments for both viewpoints!!

My current (nonfiction) favorite is: "The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter Than You Think" by Brian Hare (He is a professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University) and Vanessa Woods. A blurb about this book: “Many authors have tried to anecdotally capture the emotional bond between humans and dogs. Here at last is a book that digs deep into cognitive science to unravel the mysteries of the canine brain."
https://www.amazon.com/Genius-Dogs-Smarter-Than-Think/dp/0142180467/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=dog+cognition&qid=1599492336&sr=8-1

I'm hoping to finish this final draft by the end of the month, then I will start on the cover art. I have been working on it, literally, for many years and will be happy to have it completed so that I can go on to the next one. Whatever the next one will be!

Have a good day, everyone. I echo what Tina said. Tina, you really have a gift for words. Thank you.

Anne