The day is so very still, a typical August summer day. Nothing moves in the heaviness of the humidity, and I expect it will get even more uncomfortable if the sun, a here and there sort today, decides to hang around for the duration. Yesterday afternoon I turned on the air-conditioning as the humidity did us both in, the dog and me.

Early this morning, Gracie rang her poochie bells at four and again at 6 to go out. It is rare for her to ring them once let alone twice. I don’t know if she needed to go out or heard something in the yard. The second time I didn’t wait for her and left the backdoor open and went back to bed. She joined me in a bit. The dog door gives us both freedom.

Nothing much to do today. I do have to go to the grocery store later, one of my least favorite places, but the list is small so I should be in and out in a heartbeat. I’m thinking an afternoon nap will give me the strength to face the aisles and the hordes of carts blocking my way.

We went to Niagara Falls when I was about fifteen. I figure my parents must have saved a long time. I imagine my mother added another budget envelop labeled vacation at least a year before we left. It was the first time we ever stayed in a motel, and we went out to eat for dinner more than few times, a rarity for us. I remember we stopped for lunch at a McDonald’s, also a rarity. Usually my mother packed a picnic lunch for the road. We stayed on the American side, and my favorite memory is Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. My dad tried three times to get the cashier to give him tickets, but she ignored him the whole time. Wax figures do that. He was flustered and embarrassed when he realized. We all roared. The chamber of horrors was my favorite part. We walked along the falls that night so we could see it lit in all those beautiful colors. I still remember thinking I hadn’t seen anything so beautiful before. The roar was loud and amazing as the water cascaded over the falls. We went to the Canadian side the next day. It was my first foreign country, and I was disappointed to think it looked exactly the same as the United Sates. They even spoke English. I wanted it to be exotic.

6 days and counting.