A Time For Everything

It's too hot right now to be excited about much of anything. The heat drains one's energy pretty quickly if you have to be out in it. Luckily I only have to be out in it a few times a day for very short stretches.

But while I took a break from walking Monday because my legs ached so bad, I did get back to it last night. I'm walking three full blocks at a brisk rate in about 20/23 minutes. My calves still burn from the inclines so I'm not ready to add another block quite yet, though I'd like to be doing at least thirty minutes.

My back yard is dry, dry, dry. It hurts to look at it. When the weeds are dead, you know there's a drought. I may actually have to start watering, at least the front and the sides which are still mostly green. I started watering my trees out front (a pine, a magnolia, and a mimosa) as they were just starting to look droopy. It may just be my imagination, but they look more perky to me.

The old shed was torn down and hauled off yesterday. Now we need to replace the rotted floor and wait for the new one to be built.

My lawn mower is at the shop. It's been there for like three weeks now. The guy called the day after I dropped it off to ask if it was still under warranty, which I'm pretty sure it wasn't, because he didn't want to proceed until he knew how he was getting paid. I told him I'd look for the receipt just in case and call him back. I called the following day and told him I couldn't find the receipt (and got a lecture about saving my receipts) and that I'd pay for the repairs. So when I called yesterday and it still wasn't done and he told me it was because he didn't want to do work when he wasn't going to get paid, I was a bit peeved. I've been without a mower for almost a month. Needless to say, my yards need to be mowed. I reminded him a bit impatiently that I'd already told him I would pay for it. "Oh, I'm sorry, my fault." GRRRRRR.

I downloaded a bunch of free books to my Kindle last night so reviews may be coming soon. I'm currently reading "After the Fire" by Kathryn Shay. So far, so good. It's kept me reading, not wanting to put it down. Though I do, cuz sleep is sacred. But I was up early reading some more. There's some language, but it's cops and firemen, so I think it's realistic. No sex so far, and I'm not sure of the heat rating, so we'll see how that pans out. We're following a fire fighting family--three siblings are smoke eaters, two are not. The story revolves around the three who are. There's a lot of tension in the family because of it. The dad was also a fireman and died in the line of duty, so the two siblings who aren't fire fighters can't understand or relate to the others. I'm guessing by the end of the book, there'll be some resolution there. After a big fire where a lot of fire fighters died, the three siblings reassess their lives and try to make right what they've allowed to go pear-shaped. So when I'm done today or tomorrow, I'll let you know how it turned out.

Big day on Saturday for writing meetings--board meeting, general meeting, critique group. Oh, boy. But I'm looking forward to it. Mostly. Not the board meeting though. There was a little kerfaffle this past week. I know one of the parties will be at the board meeting, not sure about the other. So we'll see. The general meeting will be boring. It's not a topic I'm too interested in right now, seeing as how I'm not planning a traditional route to publishing. The critique meeting will be...interesting. Our group hasn't quite defined how things are going to work. I'm trying to get a consensus, but I'm not sure if that's going to work. If we can't hash it out this weekend, as co-founder, I'll make the decision.

Well, marching band boy has to be at school soon and I have to get him there, so I'm signing off!

Stay cool, stay hydrated!