Sum, Sum, Summertime is Finally Here!

While the East Coast is sweltering, it is finally getting warm on the West Coast!  Yesterday was 85F and today is scheduled to be 96F, as are Thursday and Friday!  Scott had better get the big air conditioner in today or we will never sleep tonight!
The Western US has dry Mediterranean summer weather.  This year has been anomalous, in that it rained so much from April through June.  Anyway, the dry weather (no or little rain) means we don't have much humidity.  Low humidity means higher temperatures are easier to live with and forests catch fire more easily.
We didn't have air conditioning when I was growing up.  That was left for businesses and a few families that were 'wasting money' in my parents eyes.  We just opened up the house at night, capturing the cool air.  The next morning we closed up the house and drapes to keep things cool.  We opened it up again in the cool of the evening, a summer ritual.
I remember the one old fan we owned.  No safety screen, just hard rubber blades cutting through the air.  Dad would turn it on low and let us experience the blades hitting our fingers.  It was fun poking your finger into the blades and letting them buffet your hand.  Then he turned up the speed, now it began to hurt our fingers.  This is when he explained that if we put our fingers in at the 'High' setting we would lose them.  So, NO TOUCHING THE FAN WHILE IT WAS MOVING!  We girls were pretty good about giving the fan a wide berth after getting hash marks on our calves as we ran through the house.
Hot summer days playing in the sprinkler.  Peggy liked to turn the water up high.  I preferred low water.  Getting into an argument with her and running to the backyard to play in the sprinkler back there.  Slipping and falling on the blades of the old push mower and gashing my knee.  Mom calling Dad at work to come get me and take me to the doctor.  Dad driving with his arm around me.  The doctor, a giant with hands like bear paws, gently sewing my leg and giving me a sucker for being so brave.  Then, handing me three more to share with my little sisters.  Spending the next week banned from getting my leg wet.  Learning to find a compromise with my sister so I didn't go off half-cocked again and get hurt.
Summer is HERE!

Actively Looking for a Rental

That's right.  We are out there looking for a rental. 

We have our criteria:

• In our price range
• Safe neighborhood
• Clean house in good repair
• Allows cats and dogs
• Has fenced back yard
• Allows me to choose my own wall colors - come on, I'm 60 and have had floaters for the past 20 years.   White walls drive me crazy.  Because of the floaters, they look like little floaty bugs are running all over them.
• Has laundry in the house
• Allows me to garden

That's about that. 
I figure if there isn't much storage space, I won't have so much stuff around.  Here's a problem.  One of my sisters gives all of us other sisters a lot of stuff.  We have piles of crystal bowls, platters, and other glassware she finds on her trips abroad.  It's not that I don't appreciate the gifts, it's just that I do not live the sort of life where I need these items.  I used to entertain, head up committees, do a lot a fundraising and I used those platters, etc. all the time.
Last Christmas, she found replicas of the luncheon sets Mom had when we were young.  (Those were sold in a garage sale in 1979 and no one was sad to see them go.)  Yet, she found the rectangular sandwich plates with the saucer Incorporated and little punch cup to go with.  I really don't need just one of those (I don't need any of them.)  I guess I will just pack all the stuff like that up and one day Selene will find a use for it, or not.

From left to right:  Antique Bread Plate*, two small crystal occasional bowls,Great-Grandma Carrie's plate, Dessert Plate*, Grant-Grandma Carrie's Saucer, three crystal serving bowls, in front:  Luncheon plate and cup.   *Gifts from my sister, bless her.

I will be careful to also preserve the family heirlooms from both sides of the genepool, Scott's and mine.  We use many of them everyday and enjoy having a few of them on display.  I have seen family sell great-grandma's cookbooks (I snatched up the one she jotted recipes and notes in.) and other family heirlooms.  I feel that either we pass those along to other family members before selling our heritage.  For instance, I have a couple of books that belonged to Grandma Vesta and I will never part with them.  Selene knows that they will be hers and I hope she passes them along to Lennon.
Oh here I get maudlin and I just wanted to write a post about finding a new house.  We found a place in a small, Christian, village.  It looks great on the web, the driveby was satisfactory, the landlord sounds caring and eager to find a long-term renter.  I still have to make an appointment for a walk-through.  Honestly, I like the place.  It is quiet, off the beaten path and if there is no proselytizing it will be an excellent place to spend the next five years until Scott retires and we move to the Oregon Coast.
Cross your fingers, we are looking!

Have a Happy and Safe Fourth!

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:

'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

I am Back!

I am sorry that I have not been keeping up with my posting.  I had an allergic reaction to the pain meds I was on. 
At first, I was experiencing some of the nasty side effects that I thought would just go away.  They didn't.  They got worse.  Then, I had problems breathing and an itch that was near intolerable. 
I was watching Mystery Diagnosis, when this man was complaining about a rash and itch (I knew immediately it was scabies, don't know why the doctors were so dumb).  I then connected itching with Demerol which makes me itch like a sun of a gun.  I have a Demerol allergy, could I be allergic to the new pain med?  Yes, trouble breathing and itching are signs of allergy according to the website.  I had to wean myself off the drug.  It took 10 days to get on the dosage my doctor wanted me taking and it took 10 days to wean myself off.
It was ugly.  I was tired, nauseous, crabby, brain discombobulated and couldn't do anything.
I think I am getting back to being me.  Yeah!
Anyway, I am going shopping for the first time in over three weeks!
I'll write some more later!