Come Hell Or High Water

High water, anyway. 

A few weeks ago my aunt and uncle, Diana and Lane , were in town on their way to move several states away.  They’re the one who met online, like Nick and I did, which we owe at least partially to them.  And I have the coolest aunt in the world.   So, of course, we wanted to spend time with them while they were in town.

Unfortunately, Lane is allergic to cats.  He seems to be able to tolerate being at our house for a few hours during the winter.  Our house holds heat like an oven, so during the winter whenever we have a lot of people in the house the heat doesn’t run.  As you might imagine, the air conditioner runs non-stop when we have a lot of people in the house during the hot weather.  The air running seems to blow the cat dander around and really exacerbates Lane’s allergies.

So we opted to have a picnic at a park with them. 

The first plan was a park with grills and picnic tables, but no shelters.  But every time I checked the weather forecast the chance of rain went up.  So we opted for a different park, where we could reserve a covered picnic shelter, with a grill just outside the shelter.

Picnic day arrived overcast, but not rainy.  We took everything to the park, met up with Diana and Lane, and their dog, Ambra.  We set up the food and coolers in the shelter, and all went on a walk to take Ambra to explore the park.  It was windy and cool, but still not raining.

We started to think that it wasn’t going to rain after all, and lit the grill.  About the time we got the grill going a major storm broke loose.  The rain poured down in sheets, there was thunder and lighting, and it was extremely windy.  The basketball courts and part of the parking lot flooded.  At one point we were all huddled together in the middle of the shelter because the wind was blowing the rain into the shelter. 

The wind stopped before the rain did, so we were able to sit at one of the picnic tables and play Apples to Apples while we waited for the rain to stop. 

When the rain finally stopped we decided it was time to re-light the grill.  The grill was drenched and had all of the drowned charcoal from our first attempt in it.  Fortunately, though, Nick is a firefighter, and firefighters start the best fires.  We scraped all of the wet charcoal out of the grill, but the grill was still pretty wet.  I had packed an extra disposable baking pan at the last minute, so Nick put the charcoal in that, cut some vents, and got the grill going again.

Once the grill got going for the second time it started raining again.  It wasn’t the torrential downpour from earlier, but we were worried it might be enough to put out the grill.  So we all took turns standing over the grill with umbrellas.

It was definitely a group effort to get the burgers grilled.

I promise I did take a turn holding an umbrella.  I just didn’t take pictures of myself.

The burgers were delicious, and we all had a great time.  Nothing stands in the way when our families plan a picnic.  

We’re pretty sure the picnic is going to become one of those family stories that get told over and over again.  

So what about you?  Have you grilled out in the rain? 

Summer Is Still Holding On

Today is the first day of fall, but the weather here hasn’t gotten that memo.  The temperature got up to 90 degrees today.  We’re forecast to have high temperatures all week, and are even expected to break a few heat records this week.

There are definite signs that summer is still holding hold when you walk around the yard.

We have cherry tomatoes.  We didn’t plant cherry tomatoes this year.  Or last year.  We actually stopped planting them a few years ago because they take over everything. 

The butterfly bush still has some blooms.

One of the azaleas on the shady side of the house has a few blooms. 

The hydrangea bush still has a few blooms holding on. 

The pink rose bush is blooming again.  It always has a few more blooms toward the end of September.

The rose bush we bought on clearance, half dead, a few years ago has more blooms. 

The yellow rose bush has a few more blooms.

The roses all bloom early in the season, lose their blooms, and then bloom again in September.  It’s like they want to hold on to summer as long as they can before going dormant for winter.

I still have the summer flag up.  It seems a little too warm to change over to a fall flag yet.

I think the sky is the most beautiful blue in late summer and early fall.

There wasn’t a cloud in sight when I went to lunch today.  It was very tempting not to go back to work this afternoon. 

I wouldn’t mind slightly cooler temperatures, but I’m happy summer is holding on for a little longer.

What about you?  Does it look and feel like fall where you are?  Or is summer still holding on?

Another Random Catch Up Post

I think it’s safe to say that I won’t be meeting my blogging goal for this quarter.  Maybe next quarter.  Anyway, nothing terribly exciting has been going on since my last post, but here are the highlights. 

It has been HOT.  I like the warmer weather, but it has been hotter than I like it.  We’ve broken a few heat records this month.  I don’t want it to be cold, but I wouldn’t mind slightly cooler temperatures.

We had to replace our lawn mower and weed eater.  We went with battery operated ones, and have been very happy with them.  I absolutely hated our last lawn mower.  It weighed about a million pounds, and was extremely hard to start.  The battery one is so light weight, and you just push a button to start it.  It’s better for the environment, my back, and definitely better for my attitude.  The weed eater is the same way.  We actually bought two since we have a lot of weed eating to do in our yard, and each battery only lasts for an hour.  One is incredibly light weight, but not quite as tough.  It’s great for edging.  The other one is a little heavier and does a better job cutting thicker vines, but still a lot lighter than the gas powered weed eater. 

My only complaint is that the batteries all take a while longer to charge than it said they would.  We’ve mostly figured out a system to make sure we’re not waiting around for a battery to charge, and any inconvenience with charging a battery is still much better than dealing with the gas mower and weed eater. 

Our yard is on the smaller side, about a quarter of an acre, so we don’t need that much mowing time.  It might be a different story if you had a huge yard, but if you have a smaller yard, I highly recommend going the battery route for your lawn mower and weed eater. 

I swam a mile last weekend.  I’ve been working on increasing my number of laps.  Last Sunday we had plenty of time, and I decided to go for it.  35.2 laps in the pool at our gym is a mile.  I swam 36.  My time was embarrassingly bad, but I did it.  My arms were pretty sore the next day, so I was glad it was a rest day.  I haven’t done it since then.  We don’t have quite as much time during the week, so my lap count is always lower during the week.  We had a lot going on this past week, so we took yesterday off.  I’m hoping to do it again this Sunday, and hopefully improve my time a little.

Howard has been diagnosed with asthma.  It isn’t severe, and we’re hoping to get it under control so it doesn’t become severe.  He sounded wheezy, and when we took him to the vet she confirmed that he has asthma.  We started Howard off on an inhaler, but he didn’t tolerate it well at all.  Getting stressed out over the inhaler can trigger an asthma attack, so we stopped using it. 

Our vet put him on a bronchodilator medication and steroids.  The steroids are temporary, just to help get it under control.  Steroids can cause weight gain (among other issues) and since Howard is a rotund fellow our vet doesn’t want him on steroids long term.  The bronchodilator will be the long term treatment.  It’s only a quarter of a pill, so Howard doesn’t even seem to notice it in his pill pockets.  He loves the tuna and cheese flavored pill pockets, so doesn’t seem to be bothered by taking his medication.  It’s still early to tell, but his breathing sounds a little better. 

It has been a little over a year since we brought Charlie and Mortimer home as our Hurricane Florence fosters.  I think we all knew how that was going to end.  And I’m so glad they’re ours.  They
were both super cuddly yesterday, and we all enjoyed a lazy Sunday at home. 

So how have things been for you?  Has it cooled off, or is it still really hot?