“May your adventures bring you closer together, even as they take you far away from home.”
Last night it poured. I heard the first drops around one. Henry, of course, backed away from the door when it was time for him to go out before bed. It is no longer raining, but it is still cloudy and dark. Every now and then the sun breaks through and seems to stay longer each time. I’m cheering for it. There is a breeze from the north, but the humidity is so high the poor breeze hasn’t a chance.
Saturday is turnover day here when people come and go from rentals. The people who were staying next door are gone. I don’t know if the house is rented this week, but I’ll know when Henry howls. The hound in him comes out when he hears a noise and can’t locate the source.
I didn’t go out yesterday. Mostly I read and watched MSNBC or CNN. I guess I’m a sucker for punishment.
Today I haven’t a list. I just can’t get myself motivated. I know the plants need watering, and the laundry is still downstairs leaning on the washer. I suppose (insert sigh here) I can do the laundry.
I have some fireballs. I finished one, but it took a while because I had to keep taking it out of my mouth because it was so hot. When I was a kid, a mark of bravery was to keep the fireball in your mouth the whole time. The key was to move the fireball from cheek to cheek until it was small enough to pulverize. The best thing about fireballs is they were a penny candy.
Family trips were fraught with controversy. My brother and I, by eminent domain, had back seat windows. My sister sat in the middle, a bone of contention with her. My other sister sat up front between my parents. My brother and I argued over space and didn’t tolerate even the smallest incursion to our sides. Sound was amplified in the car. My father threatened to turn around and go home, but we’d heard that time and again and not once did we ever turn around so the threat didn’t work. I didn’t know the phrase idle threat existed, but there it was multiplied. Next, my dad tried to whack us from the front seat. It was funny watching his hand and arm reaching into the backseat and getting only air, not us. He couldn’t reach either one of us. We didn’t dare laugh out loud, but we snickered behind our hands so he couldn’t see us. That would have been baiting the bear.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
July 11, 2020 at 2:36 pm
Hi Kat,
Yes, I remember the family road trip. In the 1950s air travel was very expensive so the family vacation was taken by car. The cars of the 1950s were behemoths compared to today’s cars. Detroit iron were roomy, powerful but safety took a back seat to styling. My sister and I occupied the roomy back seat. She sat behind my mother who sat in the shotgun location on the front bench seat while I sat behind my father who always drove. My father was concerned with making good time even though we were on vacation. The only trip that didn’t first involve visiting our relatives in NYC was the summer we drive to California. It was 1955, the year that Disneyland opened. On the way back we stopped for a couple of days in Las Vegas so my parents could have some adult entertainment. Both my sister and I suffered from car sickness. I wondered why my kids were never affected. I decided the carsickness was caused from the cigarette smoke from the front seats as both my parents smoked. 😦
Today is sunny and very hot. Right now at one in the afternoon it’s already 95° and climbing to a forecast high of only 99°. Tomorrow and Monday we should get over the century mark. One summer it was so hot that the TV weather meteorologist displayed the high temperature in Celsius. For some reason 40°C feels cool. 🙂
July 11, 2020 at 3:38 pm
Hi Bob,
I used to get car sick. My favorite time was when I got sick out the window and nobody noticed. My father said he thought it was raining. I said nothing.
Like yours, my father didn’t believe in a leisurely trip. It drove my mother crazy. We did stop for lunch much like the family in the photo and for bathroom breaks. We’d stop at a rest area with picnic tables. My mother also kept a few snacks and some drinks in the car. That kept us from complaining too much.
The sun came out but disappeared quickly. It is breezy. According to Alexa it is 82˚ right now, almost to the expected high of 84˚. I’m getting close to shutting doors and turning on the AC.
July 11, 2020 at 4:22 pm
Hi Kat,
Similar road trips here, too. My middle brother and I had the back seat and my youngest brother had to sit up front with my parents until he was old enough to hold his own in the back with us.
My father would threaten to turn around and go home. We knew he was really mad if he threatened to pull over and smack us. He didn’t bother trying to do so while driving. That was my mother’s strategy. She had lousy aim.
I didn’t like fireballs. I liked the ones that looked like fireballs but weren’t hot. Jawbreakers? They were made in layers and each layer was a different color. I used to pull them out of my mouth to see which layer I was on.
There didn’t seem to be much rain at all from the storm up here. Maybe 10 or 15 minutes. I heard it start raining and after a short time I realized that it wasn’t raining anymore. Today is sticky and warm but the sun is out. The sky is blue and crowded with big puffy clouds that bless us with their cooling shade when they cover the sun. I did not need the AC last night or today but I haven’t been exerting myself enough to sweat.
Enjoy the day.
July 11, 2020 at 6:20 pm
Hi Caryn,
Just today I had a jaw breaker. I can’t remember how many decades it has been since I’ve had one. I kept trying to pulverize it but the jaw breaker was even harder than fireballs. I liked its flavor.
My poor sister in the middle had that hump old cars used to have in the middle of the backseat floor. My brother and I had no pity. We’d sometimes whack other with her in the middle.
I can’t say how long it rained as I went upstairs and went to sleep early. The sum shined for all of 15 minutes today. It has been cloudy the whole rest of the day. I couldn’t believe the afternoon humidity when I went out to the yard with Henry.
My bedroom is always hot in summer and cool in winter. I have a window AC in my room which I’ve had for maybe 20 years. It is clunky and loud. I use it when the air hasn’t reached upstairs yet. It was lovely sleeping last night.
Have a great evening!!
July 15, 2020 at 3:21 am
No need of watering anything here, the rain is continuing to pour down. It was rather nice weather on Monday when I worked but as soon as Tuesday started so did the rain. They say we’ll get a few days without water falling from the skies but already on Monday next week they say it’ll start falling again 🙂 🙂 Just a typical Sweish summer to be honest.
I have now gotten and put together my new computer but I couldn’t move the anti-virys program to the new one. It should be possible but I couldn’t reach that site for some reason. I have put in the free Avast anti-virus program until I can move it.
I do like both a new phone and computer but I really don’t like to have to gothrough all that registering. Why on earth do they need to know my exact position all the time? I refuse to let them have that. especially since it is a stationary computer 🙂 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.