Cooler today.

The high was only 103° or 104°. Almost thought about the possibility of maybe not turning on my pick-up’s air-conditioning. It was a brief and quickly aborted idea.

It was a good and bad day.

Mike and Édit stopped by for lunch. It was great to see them again: almost like we were still neighbors. (Okay, we were never neighbors, but we lived in the same county.)

And Marcelle passed. I will always remember her laughter.

What a difference a day makes.

Actually, the day made very little difference. It was 107° today: even warmer than yesterday. But, it oddly seemed better. Perhaps my body is building a tolerance. Perhaps I’m becoming a tougher person.

Or perhaps it was the fan that Richard bought today.


Trixie and her new best friend, "Fanny".

I have to say it!

I am hot. I do mean HOT!

Due to the recent attempts to sanitize the internet, that isn't something I will be able to put in print on a regular basis in the future!

But today, I am scorching!

C’est chaud. Très chaud.

Can you spell 106°?

I’m serious. My mind has melted. I know how to spell "won", but is there one or two "o"s in 100?

Let the heat wave begin.

It has received much fanfare: we’ve been hearing about it for over a week. It has been delayed, downplayed, intensified and exaggerated for 8 days now, but it has finally arrived. According to some arcane site on the web, it is 102° in the greater Hood River-White Salmon metropolitan area.

While some may find that refreshing cool and invigorating, there are two black cats, two Saints and one crotchety, late-middle-aged man who are less than happy.

But we were given plenty of time to prepare. And prepared we are. The freezer is laden with ice, the fan is on full tilt, the yard has been saturated and I’m well versed in every known “heat-wave” whine.

I’d write more, but it is just too hot. My fingers are sweating from the heavy typing. Do me a favor and just imagine the rest of the witty repartée. You know it would really be amazingly funny!

From the July 2009 Restaurant Hospitality Magazine

Best Reasons to Like Macaroni & Cheese:

Tastes great.
Easy to make.
Kids love it.
Cheap.
Fast.
Is a meal in itself.
Has as few as two ingredients.
Anyone can make it.
Everyone will like you.
Cheaper than Prozac.

(Then they show a picture where someone has bastardized Macaroni & Cheese with diced ham and peas. Pure blasphemy!)

Ripped From the Headlines.

I read an article in the New York Times about the schism gay ordination has caused in the Episcopalian/Anglican Church. I quote.

“To theological conservatives, these (the ordination of gay people) are signs of a church that will ultimately collapse because it has sold its soul to secular political causes. Two conservative bishops who have remained in the Episcopal Church appeared at a news briefing last week organized by a conservative Anglican group and lamented the direction their church has taken.

‘I am a lifelong Episcopalian, a lifelong Anglican’ said Bishop William Love of Albany, N.Y., who appeared on the verge of tears. ‘It is breaking my heart to see the church destroy itself.’”

Okay, people, get real. The conservative part of the church that was founded so Henry VIII could divorce/decapitate his wives, because that bastion of liberality during the Spanish Inquisition, the Catholic Church forbade him, has found homosexuality to be the core of evil.

And people wonder why I am agnostic.

Stamp Collection for Sale

Seriously, I have a stamp collection I would like to unload.

(If you click on the comic, it gets bigger... umm, easier to read for any elderly folk out there.)

Happy Bastille Day

I understand, you all think I was there. Just because I am totally fluent in French and am of a certain age, does not mean I can give you a firsthand account of the storming of the Bastille. I wasn’t there.

I grew up in Seattle. The Bastille is in Paris. The newspaper accounts were scarce and, in those days, very right wing. Apparently Marie said something to the line of “Peut-être les assholes should mange gâteaux.” And the proletariat got pissed and stormed a prison. That is really all I know.

But let’s join the French is celebrating this day!

July 8, 2006 Homer, AK

Congratulations Abby & Steve on 3 years!

The Cornelison Kids in 1975... A Generation Passed

Bob, Mamie, Bea and Kathie.

Wayno's Rose

It's the heart, afraid of breaking
That never learns to dance
It's the dream, afraid of waking
That never takes the chance
It's the one who won't be taken
Who cannot seem to give
And the soul, afraid of dying
That never learns to live