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| Holy crap! |
That picture over there pretty much tells the story of how my week has been. It was taken shortly after I left work this afternoon. While I’m sure that the reading on the thermometer was a bit high (actual air temperature was probably around 95), my car’s thermometer is a pretty good indication of how hot it FEELS when you’re sitting outside for more than a few minutes. I am so ready for a couple of weeks in New England at the end of this month.
The heat hasn’t helped my mood any lately. Nor has the discovery that the frame around my front door has rotted to the point that I can no longer put off repairing or replacing it. Nor has the fact that, when I went outside to clean the mold off of my siding last week, I discovered that there was a tree next to the house doing its utmost to grow through my renter’s window. Nor has my complete inability to get my chipper running (which means that, when I pruned the aforementioned tree, I couldn’t do anything with the resultant brush pile except throw it off to one side until I get the stupid chipper fixed). Nor has the current political climate (in which we apparently have to cut out all those big-ticket items like public radio and funding for the arts, but we have to keep paying for two wars that are doing nothing except pissing off the rest of the world). Nor has work, which continues to weigh pretty heavily on my shoulders.
But hey – I had some fun over the last two weekends. On May 21, my nephew Wesley got married in Central, SC (that’s the name of the town, in case anyone’s wondering), and he “hired” Betsy and me – along with 14 other brass players – to play some seriously kick-ass arrangements (by Greg and Wesley) during the ceremony. I was, frankly, a bit worried that the ensemble would be staffed with high school students and older folks who pull out their horns once a year; but I was really pleasantly surprised by the quality of the group’s sound. Let me tell you, 16 decent brass players honking their heads off through Crown Imperial makes for a pretty impressive wedding ceremony. I’m looking forward to hearing a recording at some point.
Last weekend (on the 28th), Betsy and I hit the road again – this time for Greenville, SC. We spent the day watching the Highland Games at Furman, whereat large men (and large women) in kilts entertained us by throwing telephone poles, iron weights and sheep around; all while being serenaded by a series of bagpipe bands of varying size and ability.
After the games, we went to a baseball game in Greenville’s West End, where the Greenville Drive (a class-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox) dismantled the Kannapolis Intimidators (no idea to which team they are attached).
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| I took this picture of a Mexican restaurant with my phone, then edited it with Photoshop Elements for iPhone. |
Monday was Memorial Day (no work), so I drove down to Macon, where Betsy and I took in dinner at a Mexican restaurant (a picture of which accompanies this paragraph) and a movie (The Bridesmaids). The last movie I actually saw in a theatre was about a year ago, I think. I do enjoy going to cinemas, but the cost never ceases to amaze me.
The heat, however, is really the story of the last couple of weeks. Walking outside is like stepping into an oven. I’ve been pretty much forced to turn on my air conditioning every night (something that I really hate doing) because it’s simply too hot in my bedroom to sleep. I’ve taken to filling my bathtub with cold water as soon as I get home from work and getting up once or twice during the night just to sit in it for a few minutes and cool down. Then I’ll crawl back in bed and spread a wet towel on my chest (or back) and let my ceiling fan do its best to help me sleep. I’m sure that this is probably bad for my health, but I just don’t care.
Between work and bedtime, I’ve mostly just been zoning on my couch downstairs (where it’s about 15 degrees cooler than the bedroom). On a few occasions, I’ve ventured outside long enough to do some yardwork that just can’t be put off. During those forays, I’ve ended up so sweaty that, upon returning inside, my clothes immediately go into the hamper and my body just as immediately gets plunked into the tub of cold water.
All this to say, of course, that DAMN, IT’S HOT!
As it’s now pushing 11 o’clock at night, I shall end this drivel and go sit in the tub for ten minutes before retiring. And I think I’ll make a promise to myself to try again to update this little blog on a daily basis for the next month or so.
TWD