Saturday, May 25, 2019

Memorial Day weekend

It's a holiday weekend, which means a three day weekend. Memorial Day. I'm grateful for the extra time off and a chance to relax a little. Also, the house is messy and needs some attention.

The heat wave, and the barely functioning air conditioner, continues. Sitting in an almost-too-warm room with the blinds drawn isn't very satisfactory, but at least it's comfortable enough to get by. I'm trying to avoid cooking and we're taking cool showers, but I finally had to break down and put on a load of laundry this morning. All of my shorts and tank tops/thin short sleeved shirts/camis were filling up the laundry basket and I've got to have some clean clothes. I plan to run the dryer on the coolest setting for the shortest possible amount of time, and the laundry room will be closed off. We're still getting periodic blasts of cool air from the a/c vents thanks to the misting water hose I have positioned in front of the unit, but I hate wasting the water (and dread the next water bill).

I did call the home warranty company for some kind of update yesterday, and the person I spoke with said that she could see that parts had been ordered the day after the technician came out. I'm taking that as a good sign that maybe the unit will be repaired, although I don't think there's a chance in hell that will happen until after Monday. It's a holiday weekend that happened to fall during a record-setting heat wave. The few technicians working will have their hands full, and probably charging holiday rates to boot. So we have to limp along as best we can. We do have a portable a/c on wheels that will cool a single room nicely if worse comes to worse. It was used for the dogs in our last garage when they lived outside. They're mostly indoor dogs these days, especially when the weather is bad. Like today...almost 100 degrees in the shade!

A couple of weeks ago at the big library sale downtown I bought my first Philippa Gregory book, The Red Queen. I liked it so much that I read it in about 3 days.  After having such a bad day on Wednesday (after meeting with the a/c technician I went back to work only to get yelled at and harshly insulted by a parent) I decided I deserved a small treat so I went by the bookstore, got coffee with friends, and bought a paperback copy of The White Princess. I'm finding that these books about the warring cousins trying to claim the throne of England is a good substitute for Game of Thrones! It's also nice to discover a new author to enjoy. She seems to be a most prolific writer so I'll have plenty of entertainment to look forward to. Are you reading anything these days? If so I'd love to hear about it.

For the long weekend, we'll probably do the traditional thing and grill out--a lot! It's no good heating up the house with the stove, and cold salads go great with grilled meats and corn on the cob. I may even try to get some strawberries, if there are any left after the heat we've had this week.

Have a nice weekend, everyone.

     

28 comments:

  1. currently reading "FDR's last year",; covers april 1944 to april 1945. FDR was in REALLY bad shape for his final presidential year. only his MDs knew how bad it was; the family and the american people knew nothing. I don't envy your lack of a/c. we will have a cookout on monday also.

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    1. Let me know how you like that book when you finish; it sounds like something Gregg would like. Did you ever read the series of books about LBJ by Robert Caro? They're meticulously researched, and really good. Even I (no fan of political non fiction) enjoyed them.

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    2. I love those books by Robert Caro.

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  2. The audio version of the Philippa Gregory books are very good, too.
    Is there any place y'all can go swimming?

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    1. Sadly, not at the moment. My friend Marian has a pool, but the lining is being repaired.

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  3. I'm reading The Last Tudor by Philippa Gregory at the moment.

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    1. I'm sure that will be a future read for me!

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  4. I'm in retail. I work. My holiday is on Tuesday... well, not quite, I'm taking a friend to the hospital for out-patient surgery. Oh, joy.

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    1. After 15 years in retail, working every weekend and every holiday, I understand how much it sucks. It's awfully nice of you to help your friend on Tuesday.

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  5. You have a good holiday, Jennifer, and I wish you the best with the AC.

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    1. Today I'm going to the (cool, dark) planetarium with a friend for a presentation. It will get me out of this hot house!

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  6. I am having trouble with comcast computer and they keep telling me everything works. Not the same as a AC but very frustrating.
    I hope you have a somewhat nice weekend.
    parsnip x

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    1. Ugh! I hate computer problems! I hope it's resolved soon for you!

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  7. It being so hot in your area, can you not dry your washing outside on a line? It would save on the electricity bill and not make your house any warmer.
    When I was about 13, I read many Philippa Gregory books, also many novels written by her under her other pen name, Victoria Holt. My sister and I loved them but I have not read any more of them since my teenage years.

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    1. We need to put up a clothesline out back. I was already thinking about it to save electricity.

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  8. We have great air conditioning devices here in our Yorkshire mansion. They never break down. They are called windows and when you open them a cooling breeze frequently wafts in. Best of all these devices cost nothing to operate. This is the difference between living in a temperate climate and a sub-tropical one.

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    1. Lucky you to live in a temperate climate where open windows are adequate in the summer. I'd prefer open windows and fresh air but it's far too hot here in the summer.

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  9. Hope you're enjoying the weekend despite the badly timed A/C problems (aren't those always badly time?)

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    1. You're right! Those kinds of problems never happen at convenient times.

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  10. I've never read Philippa Gregory, but I know she's popular. We've got several of her books in our library. Thank goodness for that portable air conditioner! As for the dryer, is it an option to hang your clothes outside to dry? I bet they'd dry in no time in that heat. (Although there's probably 1000 percent humidity too, right?)

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    1. Oh, I just saw your response to Librarian, above. Yes! Clothesline!

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    2. The humidity is terrible, Steve. But we have a ceiling fan on the back porch and I think a clothesline would work fine out there.

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    3. We used to dry ours on the line in Florida. In fact, we didn't even own a dryer when I was growing up. When it was rainy we'd hang our clothes in the garage. My mom finally got one in about 1995!

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  11. Wish I could mail you some of our cool wet weather.

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    1. I would take it gladly! We need rain, too.

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  12. Lucky person to have grilling and heat! I am in northern arizona - snow is predicted tomorrow.

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  13. Stay cool friend. We don't have AC, but if I lived where it was needed and it wasn't working I would melt into a puddle from being too warm. I prefer being too cool to being too hot. I read a couple of Philippa Gregory's books about Henry VIII and his wives, very enjoyable.

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  14. My daughter introduced me to Philippa Gregory's books. The first one we read was The Other Boleyn Girl. We were hooked. I hope you aren't too miserable in the heat. It's terrible here.

    Love,
    Janie

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