Heat Waves And Other Nuisances
OMG!!! I'm posting again!! At this rate, I may actually learn how to blog properly!! :D *tongue firmly inserted in cheek*
It's hot here. REALLY hot here. Dammit.
I'm not exactly joking when I call this place "Paradise"; because under normal conditions, it certainly qualifies. Our so-called "normal" summer weather is night & morning fog, burning off at about 10 or 11 in the morning, sunny until about 4 or 5, and then slowly getting foggy again - with that lovely fog keeping our temps generally in the mid-70's to maybe 80 in the summers. Thanks to being so close to the ocean, our winters only very rarely see a frost, much less a freeze. Technically, I live in what's known as a Mediterranean climate, similar to the climate on the French Riviera.
Well, at least that was the way life in this area was before climate change (and no, it is NOT a hoax.) I know California's current foray into having heat-related energy issues has made its way into the national news; what's probably not been reported much is that we're not really expected to get much relief for at least another week. Maybe.
There's no night & morning fog. Period. End of statement. Full stop. Hasn't been for days now. Yesterday was 98 degrees Farenheit here at my house - which is brutal in an area that, by in large, has NEVER needed to invest heavily in air conditioning BECAUSE of the fog and its cooling properties. And our heat stayed in the two-digits ONLY because we're so close to the ocean (2 miles as the crow flies) while our inland areas were in the 100's (they expect 109 today) and are expected to stay in triple digits until at least Friday. "They say" there's a tropical storm coming up from Mexico that should cool things down.
I'll believe it when I see it. Our reservoir lake is down to under 25% capacity, so we desperately need rain and have to be very mindful of conserving water. Even if it turns things muggy, I'll take precipitation any way I can get it!!
I'm lucky, tho. Daughter Súl's two dogs (both pit bull mixes) have NOT endured the heat well, even when being kept inside where it's considerably cooler even without A/C. Evidently both have had digestive issues that resulted in, around midnight last night, two dog beds getting thrown out due to poop-related accidents (both dogs are extremely well house-broken, so this is not just run of the mill for them), rugs having to be cleaned, floors mopped where dogs and humans stepped in the mess, dogs taken out in the back to be hosed down before put in the shower to be properly cleaned. Poor Súl says she's running on sleep deprivation today, and that she even had a panic attack from the heat yesterday.
Today I'm making a concerted effort to make certain my outdoor "critters" (1 outdoor cat and a murder of about 4 crows) have adequate water to weather the weather. My epiphyla are coming inside so they don't burn any worse than they already have - poor things are already 45 - 50 year old plants that have really been pretty neglected most of their lives because of their hardiness, but I don't want them dead. Ever seen one of those things bloom?? Magnificent!!! So gotta make space for the last, most straggly and ugly-looking of the lot, as that's the one that has bloomed the most these past few years.
I also have to make certain my mature trees get some water too. I have a nice, large magnolia tree in the front yard, a Mayer lemon tree on the NE side and two orange trees (one Navel, one Valencia) in the back. I lost my beautiful English walnut tree to drought about four years ago, and I don't want to lose anymore trees. I do know, however, that the old-fashioned hedge around my front yard has several of the plants that are dying/are already dead. We'll probably have to just pull the hedge eventually - and I'm not really happy about that except that it will mean less sewer issues (the hedge grows over the outflow line and gets roots into it that have to be reamed out yearly) as well as less water usage overall.
If I have to water anything, I prefer to have it producing something besides pretty flowers - which means I'm seriously considering figuring out how to do some raised bed gardening in my front yard around the magnolia, and maybe raising herbs and/or veggies. Daughter Súl's fiancé Galadon is raising some pepper plants (the kind that would kill me to eat them as I blister eating Jalopeños!!) and some volunteer tomatoes (from the house next door) in a raised bed and enjoys the gardening work. He & I are in discussion on how to add to that one raised bed, and what to put in it. I sure would rather have herbs & veggies than grass that needs mowing in winter!!
In other news...
Transgender daughter Vanna and her wife are currently isolating with COVID - Vanna lost her taste & smell at first, but she says it's coming back in fits and starts. They, as I and the rest of the family up here discovered, are having a more difficult time getting over the brain fog and general fatigue end of things as it winds down. None of us here lost taste or smell tho, so I'm thinking they must have a slightly different flavor of bug than we did - and again I think we here lucked out.
I continue to spend time every week with a couple of more elder ladies over in Halcyon: my friend Nina from St. Petersburg Russia, and my friend Irma from Germany. My use of Russian to communicate continues to progress slowly - although spending 2-3 hours/week functioning pretty much solely in Russian does tend to move things along apace. Irma and another friend Wiesie (also from Germany) want to learn Russian, so I'm a living example of "if you want to learn something really well, teach it." Speaking it is one thing, but my skill at deciphering Cyrillic is a much slower go. It's a good thing that I still remember some of my beginning German, because when those two (Irm & Wiesie) need to switch languages, provided they don't switch to French, at least I don't get left completely behind.
I'm still not writing; I'm percolating on one story pretty hard, tho - so that may manifest as some wordage somewhere down the line, but no promises as to when. I suppose I should post the next chapter of IDD along here somewhere, but that's been written years ago. I'm just a slacker at posting.
So anyway, that's life here. I keep my fingers crossed that our power grid doesn't go down from all the folks using fans, A/C, whatever, to stay cool (I make do with a wet towel around the next wiping face & arms when I need to cool down.) I'll be SOOOOO glad to see the fog again, I can't tell ya.
Everybody take care. And, as another friend says in her blog everyday, Slava Ukraini.
It's hot here. REALLY hot here. Dammit.
I'm not exactly joking when I call this place "Paradise"; because under normal conditions, it certainly qualifies. Our so-called "normal" summer weather is night & morning fog, burning off at about 10 or 11 in the morning, sunny until about 4 or 5, and then slowly getting foggy again - with that lovely fog keeping our temps generally in the mid-70's to maybe 80 in the summers. Thanks to being so close to the ocean, our winters only very rarely see a frost, much less a freeze. Technically, I live in what's known as a Mediterranean climate, similar to the climate on the French Riviera.
Well, at least that was the way life in this area was before climate change (and no, it is NOT a hoax.) I know California's current foray into having heat-related energy issues has made its way into the national news; what's probably not been reported much is that we're not really expected to get much relief for at least another week. Maybe.
There's no night & morning fog. Period. End of statement. Full stop. Hasn't been for days now. Yesterday was 98 degrees Farenheit here at my house - which is brutal in an area that, by in large, has NEVER needed to invest heavily in air conditioning BECAUSE of the fog and its cooling properties. And our heat stayed in the two-digits ONLY because we're so close to the ocean (2 miles as the crow flies) while our inland areas were in the 100's (they expect 109 today) and are expected to stay in triple digits until at least Friday. "They say" there's a tropical storm coming up from Mexico that should cool things down.
I'll believe it when I see it. Our reservoir lake is down to under 25% capacity, so we desperately need rain and have to be very mindful of conserving water. Even if it turns things muggy, I'll take precipitation any way I can get it!!
I'm lucky, tho. Daughter Súl's two dogs (both pit bull mixes) have NOT endured the heat well, even when being kept inside where it's considerably cooler even without A/C. Evidently both have had digestive issues that resulted in, around midnight last night, two dog beds getting thrown out due to poop-related accidents (both dogs are extremely well house-broken, so this is not just run of the mill for them), rugs having to be cleaned, floors mopped where dogs and humans stepped in the mess, dogs taken out in the back to be hosed down before put in the shower to be properly cleaned. Poor Súl says she's running on sleep deprivation today, and that she even had a panic attack from the heat yesterday.
Today I'm making a concerted effort to make certain my outdoor "critters" (1 outdoor cat and a murder of about 4 crows) have adequate water to weather the weather. My epiphyla are coming inside so they don't burn any worse than they already have - poor things are already 45 - 50 year old plants that have really been pretty neglected most of their lives because of their hardiness, but I don't want them dead. Ever seen one of those things bloom?? Magnificent!!! So gotta make space for the last, most straggly and ugly-looking of the lot, as that's the one that has bloomed the most these past few years.
I also have to make certain my mature trees get some water too. I have a nice, large magnolia tree in the front yard, a Mayer lemon tree on the NE side and two orange trees (one Navel, one Valencia) in the back. I lost my beautiful English walnut tree to drought about four years ago, and I don't want to lose anymore trees. I do know, however, that the old-fashioned hedge around my front yard has several of the plants that are dying/are already dead. We'll probably have to just pull the hedge eventually - and I'm not really happy about that except that it will mean less sewer issues (the hedge grows over the outflow line and gets roots into it that have to be reamed out yearly) as well as less water usage overall.
If I have to water anything, I prefer to have it producing something besides pretty flowers - which means I'm seriously considering figuring out how to do some raised bed gardening in my front yard around the magnolia, and maybe raising herbs and/or veggies. Daughter Súl's fiancé Galadon is raising some pepper plants (the kind that would kill me to eat them as I blister eating Jalopeños!!) and some volunteer tomatoes (from the house next door) in a raised bed and enjoys the gardening work. He & I are in discussion on how to add to that one raised bed, and what to put in it. I sure would rather have herbs & veggies than grass that needs mowing in winter!!
In other news...
Transgender daughter Vanna and her wife are currently isolating with COVID - Vanna lost her taste & smell at first, but she says it's coming back in fits and starts. They, as I and the rest of the family up here discovered, are having a more difficult time getting over the brain fog and general fatigue end of things as it winds down. None of us here lost taste or smell tho, so I'm thinking they must have a slightly different flavor of bug than we did - and again I think we here lucked out.
I continue to spend time every week with a couple of more elder ladies over in Halcyon: my friend Nina from St. Petersburg Russia, and my friend Irma from Germany. My use of Russian to communicate continues to progress slowly - although spending 2-3 hours/week functioning pretty much solely in Russian does tend to move things along apace. Irma and another friend Wiesie (also from Germany) want to learn Russian, so I'm a living example of "if you want to learn something really well, teach it." Speaking it is one thing, but my skill at deciphering Cyrillic is a much slower go. It's a good thing that I still remember some of my beginning German, because when those two (Irm & Wiesie) need to switch languages, provided they don't switch to French, at least I don't get left completely behind.
I'm still not writing; I'm percolating on one story pretty hard, tho - so that may manifest as some wordage somewhere down the line, but no promises as to when. I suppose I should post the next chapter of IDD along here somewhere, but that's been written years ago. I'm just a slacker at posting.
So anyway, that's life here. I keep my fingers crossed that our power grid doesn't go down from all the folks using fans, A/C, whatever, to stay cool (I make do with a wet towel around the next wiping face & arms when I need to cool down.) I'll be SOOOOO glad to see the fog again, I can't tell ya.
Everybody take care. And, as another friend says in her blog everyday, Slava Ukraini.