The Heat is on! We're ready!

 I'm not gonna complain about how hot it is.  Every time I want to complain, I'll jump into New Big Blue.  

The heat is good cuz of the corn and the 'maters.  The heat is good cuz I don't have to wear four layers of clothing to go outside in the morning.  This morning I was down to one layer.  That was nice.  

The heat is good for a lot of reasons, many of which are not exactly at the tip of my tongue right now. 

I could go into all the reasons the heat is bad, but I vowed not to do that today.  We in North Idaho are good at preparing for all weather extremes cuz usually that's what we have here and usually we have a lot of any extreme.  

I must say, however, that we haven't had to deal with heat much for a while.  In fact, I'm thinking that last year we needed only one finger to count all the days when the temperature rose above 90 degrees.  This year we may need a lot of fingers, but we're ready.  

For example, horses have their fly masks from early morning until they come up from pasture in the evening.  

And, we spent yesterday afternoon in the extreme heat assembling the New Big Blue.  

There was a time---as Willie, Bill and I were trying to figure out how to get those damnable grommets punched into the pool rim---that I almost complained about the heat. 

Salt in the eye when you're turned upside down to see if the metal has lined up to allow the grommet to come all the way through the hole makes for bad visibility.  

I believe I even commented that there was something wrong with this picture.  

Seemed to me that instead of sweatin' our glands out putting the pool together in 97-degree direct sunlight warmth that we should be INSIDE the pool.  That still didn't get the grommets inserted, so we all worked onward to finish the project. 

The project is actually being completed as I type.  We sent Willie home after filling the pool with about two inches of water.  We told him it wasn't necessary for him to stay through all 4,000 gallons.  

That was good cuz water ran into the pool steadily from 4 p.m. to almost 9 p.m., and we still had six inches of depth to go.  

Early this morning I reinserted the hose into the pool, which---a bit less than level--withstood the pressure of all that water.  

The water depth has now reached the proper level, and Bill is out there right now finishing up pump and hose installation and all that "ph" stuff that keeps swimmers from getting weird diseases. 

This afternoon the cold, cold water from the hydrant should warm up, and we should be thumbing our nose at 97 humid degrees or whatever amount Mother Nature wants to inflict upon us. 

Tomorrow the pool will feel really good cuz I have to help my sisters show horses at the Idaho State Horse Judging contest.  I can tell you that showing horses in 90-degree swelter is definitely a sweaty job.  

But my attitude about all that sweat will be excellent cuz I know that when the showing of horses is over, New Big Blue will be at home waiting to welcome me with all that cool Oden water. 

Happy Monday to all.