Hot and Hotter

Yup, I've got my purple personal fan revved up to high speed, and it's blowing cool air directly at me as I type. 

For a while, at least,  the portable heater will get some time off from blowing warm air on my cold toes.

The heat is on, and we're finding ways to enjoy it.  Of course, the greatest enjoyment comes from God's artwork which pops out all over on hot days, it seems.

And, those volunteer poppies like the one pictured above seem to pop up all over the place.  Seems like once you've got 'em, they multiply like rabbits.  

And, I don't mind. 

These are located over by the fence where I brush and saddle horses.  The horses have been wanting to snip the tops off, but I do my best to protect the poppies.

The results this year have been worth it.

Speaking of poppies populating the place, we also have town squirrels.  Annie snapped a few shots of this one at the living-room-window bird feeder.

Those squirrels started out with just a few pair in town several years ago.  Well, like the poppies they multiply quickly and they've found their way several miles out of town since their first introduction.

I put the picture on here this morning, just for my next-door neighbor Stan.  Just want Stan to know we're taking care of the squirrels so they won't need to go to the Meserve Preserve. 

Stan will like that.  He's kinda biased toward the native squirrels and doesn't like to see the town kids horning in on country-squirrel habitat.

And, let's talk about peas popping out all over in this heat.  These pea plants are about six feet high and risin'. 

Their pods are getting fatter by the day, so I'll be pickin' and shuckin' pretty darned quick.  Nothing like fresh green peas swimming in butter, salt and pepper. 

While on the subject of swimming,  I'm gonna talk about Big Blue this morning and let you know that Big Blue has been retired.

I thought we'd have one more year of fighting with the hard-to-manage swimming pool, but that thought came to an abrupt end the other day.

Bill had kinda suggested last fall that Big Blue might have to be replaced.  So, I left Big Blue outside for the winter.

Lately, I have waited and waited,  hoping that some day he'd come driving in the driveway with a newer, better Big Blue in the back of his pickup.

Well, he didn't, so I started "pulling an Annie" on him.  "Pulling an Annie," as our Annie well knows means that you keep hinting and hinting enough that Bill will react.

Well, his reaction time isn't nearly as good with me as it is with Annie.

Yesterday, however, he did say that he and Annie were leaving early on their trip to the airport so they could stop at Cabela's.

Bill had mentioned in one of our discussions that pools were on sale at Cabela's.  So, I tucked that in my mind, knowing that a pool would eventually come.  

The reason I felt so confident is that I had told Bill of my last attempt to resurrect Big Blue.  

When I told him about the snake that came slithering out of the folded up pool and about the two snake skins I found while unfolding the pool some more---that was after I'd gotten over my revulsion at the sight of that live snake----well, Bill thought about those snakes and later dropped a hint.

"I don't do well with snakes," he said.  That's when I knew for sure he'd be shopping for a new Big Blue.

He did but came home yesterday with no pool.

He'd gone to several stores in the Spokane area with no luck.  No Cabela's, no Tri-State, no Costco.  

"I guess I'll go down to Wal-Mart tomorrow and pick one up there," he said.

Well, I'd just seen the weather forecast for the next week.

"There probably aren't any pools left at Wal-Mart," I said.

Two minutes later, I was driving to town.

Twenty minutes later, I was unloading a pool from the back of the car in the back yard.  

Bill got the directions out and read to the point where it said three people would be needed to set it up.

So, we agreed to wait until today.  You see Willie has a friend here for the week who's an aviation engineer.  Andrew works on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and he's traveled the world this spring and summer promoting the new plane.

We figure that if Andrew can work on Dreamliner design, he can figure out how to put a Big Blue together much more efficiently than Bill or I. 

So, we're hoping that will happen this morning and that by afternoon when and if it does reach 100 degrees, the snakes will be happily slithering around the innards of Old Big Blue while we're swimming around in 4,000 gallons of Oden water inside our New Big Blue.

Stay tuned AND do stay cool!