Underwear

I just remembered I was tagged a while back with the ole Seven Weird Things About Me. I just realised that I never finished it. I *think* I got to 5, or maybe four... Oh, just click on the "tag" label and you'll find out.

I thought I'd add another weird thing about me... Underwear, or lack thereof.


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And AFTER using WING WAX(TM)



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We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog, thanks for your time!


... and now you know why I don't wear underwear. I hope this clears up that unfortunate misunderstanding on the bus the other day.

Talking rainbow lorikeets

Superman

I'm finally going to conclude the death of a canoe story! I promise! Really! I'm not kidding this time...

But first, let's put in an obligatory birdie pic, eh?

This is a shot of The Cat (otherwise known as Prince Bagheera, or His Royal Highness) watching his telly:


Must be hard to be a cat here when the birds are as big as you, eh?


Meanwhile, back at the creek...

Here's the last paragraph from the previous episode (I swear I'm not making this up!!!!!)

So, there's me, mom and the Old Fart hanging onto the sweeper (water up to our shoulders and a fierce current and our feet not touching bottom) and Doug (8 yrs old) in the front of a half swamped lake canoe heading right towards a logjam on the outer part of the turn with no way to steer.


...and now the conclusion...

Just to clarify (like butter!) something here, I was closest to the bank, then mom, then Superman (the Old Fart, my dad). Also, none of our feet were touching bottom, so when I say we were up to our shoulders that's only cus we had the big ole sweeper tree there to hang onto.

I'm sure y'all can picture that...

Anyways, Superman (the Old Fart) yells to Doug (my brother, who never listens to advice) to get to the back of the canoe before it hits the logjam on the outside of the next corner. Now in fairness to my bro, Doug didn't hear him and remained at the front and proceeded to PADDLE as hard as he could! Hey, what's an 8 year old gonna do?

So the canoe (with Doug in the front) hits the logs. Just a reminder: These eddys are formed on the outer part of a sharp bend in a creek and they make a whirlpool (just like the washing machines) effect. Anything that can float (like logs) kinda swirls around on top, while anything that can't float (say, perhaps a half flooded canoe with a little kid in the front) gets shot quickly to the bottom of the creek which is around ten feet deep at the bottom of the eddys.

As the long lake canoe (half sunk and with Doug in the front) hits the logs, it naturally sinks her bow (that's a fancy boating term for The Front of a Boat) and starts to slide under one of the logs. By doing so, Doug (that's my 8 year old brother in the bow) is pinned between a floating log and a canoe which is rapidly being pushed forward and down... towards the cold, dark deathly bottom of the creek!

Naturally Doug is rather frantic at this point, just like the rest of us clinging to the sweeper while up to our necks in some really really really cold water. We also had a perfect view of Doug and the canoe since they were only around 50 feet away in direct view.

Here's where you'll find out why this post is titled Superman (no, it's not just to get more visitors).

But first, I thought I'd tell you that it's bloody-well cold here! 83F in the shade, and 96 F in the sun! Brrrrrrr!!!!!! I almost thought about maybe thinking of putting long sleeves on to ride this morning... Blech!

At this point the Old Fart (my dad, superman) must've decided that enough was enough. He somehow got through the tangle of branches, mom, and myself to get to the bank and scramble up. By then I had managed to get closer to the bank while still in the sweeper that superman had just got through. My dad (superman, the Old Fart) reached out and pulled me up onto the bank. He then did the same for mom. Now, I know that doesn't sound like much, but for those of you who've been tangled up in a sweeper near the shore of a very fast moving, deep, and COLD creek then you'll know what an effort that was for him.

and here's the really amazing part...

Superman then sprinted downriver on a trail that followed the creek. He had remembered there was a bridge downriver a ways. Mom and I watched Doug and the canoe helplessly as the canoe was being pulled down and Doug was sandwiched neatly between a log and the canoe...

Suddenly Superman comes charging through the bushes, willows, and devils club right next to where Doug is. Superman then shimmies out onto the logs, reaches my bro, pries the canoe away from him (against the current), pulls him up and tosses him to shore. Superman then manages (somehow) to get a hold of the canoe and drag it over to the muddy bank and get himself out of the logjam.

It's TRUE! My dad really did that! Wow! Mom and I then went on down the trail, crossed the bridge and found our way back to where they were. By this time the Old Fart had safely hidden his superman cap so he had shrunk back to a normal person. Doug was fine, I was fine, mom was fine, dad was fine.

The canoe, however, had definitely seen better days. No paddles were ever found and she was badly bent and dented about a third of the way from the bow (remember, that's a fancy boaters' term for the front of a boat) very close to where Doug was.

After this the adrenaline musta wore off cus I have absolutely NO memory of getting home!

Perhaps Superman flew us home?

Warning

Warning! Danger, Will Robinson! My arms are swinging wildly about! Whoopsie, there I go showing my age again...

I'm working on the conclusion to the canoe death story, no worries. But to tide you over, I've got some pics to show you. Now, some of these have appeared here, most of them haven't. Why am I putting up the pics that have been here before????? Cus I've got boatloads of NEW READERS! And not all of them feel like trawling through my archives, so I thought I'd put up a few of my pics from yonks (that's aussie for a long time) ago.

Ready? Fasten your seatbelt, put your tray table in an upright position, extinguish all smoking materials (ooops, showing my age), and kiss your a** goodbye.  Ummmm, I just made up that last dependant clause.


So, here's the pics to keep y'all happy today:



This one's recent, but he's just so STUDLY!




Quick, fly away! He's got a camera!



This is a Bir of Paradise flower. Cool, eh?




Now you know why it's called a LONG billed corella!





Just another morning at the feeder...






Yo Adrian!



Size DOES matter!






Splish, splash, I was takin' a bath!




This is a typical aussie bloke:






I'm mean, I'm mean, I'm mean! Ya know what I mean!



This is a fairly recent one, but it's so COOL!





Ditto with this one!





There's supposed to be a waterfall here... Hmmmm, must be a drought.





Well, of COURSE you would!







This is mine, you can not have it.



This is my current passport photo. Oh, my hair is blonder now.





Just another perfectly focused shot of a sun-burnt tree fern. I think there may be something interesting in the background.







Oi! Pass me a tinny, mate!



I really really really want to live here.







If you're finished with the photo, can I stop holding this dumb pose?



This is why they are called ROCK Wallabies:




The t-shirt sums things up nicely.







Purdy

Sudden Death

Well, actually, none of us died (in the creek, at least)... But the canoe sure did! Hmmmm, I guess I should tell you what happened, perhaps?

But first: more birdses!

There were 8 galahs hanging out in the feeder two days ago, and I got some pretty darned good shots of em.

Here ya go:


"Say George, I think you've run out of tree."




SPLAT!
"Ooooooo, that's gotta hurt!"




"Do these new wings make my butt look fat?"



"I want that piece of brick! It's mine, all MINE!"


In other news:  The Adelaide Heat Wave is OVER!!!

It is now 83 F in the shade, and 100 F in the sun. Some part of me feels like putting on a jacket, and then the rest of me feels like taking that first part and beating the crap out of it. SOMETIMES IT'S NICE TO BE COLD!!!!! Mind you, I'm still in shorts and bare feet :)


Now, the part two that you've all been waiting for: what happened to the clan and the canoe.

Note: check out my previous post for part one.


T'was a dark and stormy night. No, actually it was a bright sunny day. I do remember it being a saturday, in fact.

The big ole lake canoe was securely tied (or so we thought) to the rack on top of the brand spankin' new Jeep Commando. Well, at the time it was brand new as it was a 1972 model. Oh come on now, dontcha all remember them nice green jeeps with the detachable roof? 3 speed stick shift about 3 feet long? Manual everything? Non-automatic locking hubs (the kind you have to get out of the vehicle to turn when you are stuck in the muck slowly sinking (but that's another story))? That jeep would've eaten any of these modern SUVs for brekkie and then wonder where the main course was.

The Old Fart's 1967 Camaro was parked down where CC hit's CL (Campbell Lake). I seem to vaguely recollect the Old Fart and my mom shuffling the two cars around so this would work, but I was too young to remember the particulars.

Meanwhile, back at the story of the clan, the canoe, and the creek...

We arrived safely up past Lake Otis to put the canoe in, and, amazingly enough, it was still attached. If there's one thing the Old Fart knows, it's knots! This was back in the days before nylon straps with self-tightening buckles.

So we put in. That's fancy boat talk for the following: Getting the canoe off the roof rack of the jeep (which involved lots of cool words from the Old Fart that I'd never heard before), loading the canoe up with all our stuff, getting that long sucker in the creek (I learned even more new words), and all of us getting in the creek while only getting soaking wet and freezing cold up to our necks (and learning even MORE new words).

Little dave learned lots of new words starting with F, S, D, and M. Most only had one syllable (see! I now know that word!) but the ones starting with M had multiple syllables and went something like this:

M&*#@%&-F*@$&%#-Piece-of S*&#

I'm sure y'all can picture that...

We had a nice leisurely paddle/ride/float on down the the Arctic RoadRunner. It's a restaurant on the creek that a lot of people would stop at and refuel. Refueling meant having the biggest, greasyist (sp?) cheeseburgers in the world along with the biggest load of onion rings you've ever seen! Keep in mind, this was back in the days BEFORE cholesterol so we didn't have to worry as cholesterol hadn't been invented yet!

On a side note, I now make the BEST onion rings so make sure you check out my cooking blog soon for the recipe.

We'd normally "haul out" at that point. Haul out is another one of those fancy boating terms involving lots and lots of new words for an impressionable seven year old to learn! I tell ya, after this trip I was so edjukated with new words that I was sure I'd never have to go to school again. Sigh... if only...

But this time we were going all the way down the creek. (insert eerie music here)

The creek turned from a creek to a crick. If any of you have read Patrick McManus, then YOU know what I'm talking about. Suddenly the cute beavers turned into haunting shadows under the bracken on the banks. The nice chirping birds had gone deathly silent, as if they knew what awaited...

Are y'all on the edge of your seats yet?

The crick became twisty and convoluted (see, I learned even more new words), the turns were tighter and narrower. As the crick narrowed, it got deeper...

Sweepers were on the inside and outside of every turn, avoiding them soon became impossible. Even the Old Fart (also the strongest bloke I've known) couldn't keep the long lake canoe away from the sweepers and the logjams.

We settled into a routine of taking the inside of each turn (while ducking under and getting scraped by sweepers) in order to be shot out to the opposite bank to be ready for the next turn.

We had to take them tight like that cus of the logjams on the outside of each turn. Definitely did not want to mess with those, no sirree!

As we were going under one of the sweepers which was particularly low, disaster STRUCK! And boy howdy did it strike! Doug (my older brother by a bit over a year) was able to get under and stay in the canoe, but mom (who was quite a bit taller than my 8 year old brother) was not... She ended up hanging on to the sweeper tree while the canoe was going under her. I was right behind her so naturally I ended up in the tree clinging to both mom and whatever branches I could find. The Old Fart (my dad) grabbed onto the sweeper with one hand and held onto the canoe with the other. He'd obviously let go of his paddle at this point, at least I think he did cus he didn't have three hands.

Even though the Old Fart was a strong bloke, there was no way in hell (nor in Alaska) that he'd be able to hold onto a canoe that was starting to swamp (that's a fancy boating term meaning "Oh shit! We're sinking!!!") and the tree while the current that was rather fast. He let the canoe go... with Doug still in the front... half under water...

So, there's me, mom and the Old Fart hanging onto the sweeper (water up to our shoulders and a fierce current and our feet not touching bottom) and Doug (8 yrs old) in the front of a half swamped lake canoe heading right towards a logjam on the outer part of the turn with no way to steer.

Stay tuned folks! The conclusion is coming soon to a blog near you!

Better Than A Beer From Belgium

How's that for a post title? Gonna get some hits from that, for sure!

Now, we all know that belgians (that being a person from Belgium) make damned good beer. So good that the main world-wide beer tasting competitions are run in Bruxxelles (Brussells for those of you not familiar with flemish).

I'm sure that anyone who's had a beer from Belgium is doubtlessly gonna say that there is NO WAY a beer from Oz (that's aussie slang for Australia) is better than one that the belgians make.

Well... how abouts if the BELGIANS think so?

There is a beer brewed down in Tas (aussie for Tasmania) that certainly qualifies. It has just won a special gold medal at the latest competitions from Brussells. A beer is only awarded this special gold medal if it has WON GOLD MEDALS FOR TEN YEARS STRAIGHT in their tasting competitions.

So, for ten years in a row, the belgians have given this beer a gold medal and given it a special recognition for the wins.

What is this wonder brew? It's James Boag's Premium Lager. It's brewed in Tas, specifically Launceston (pronounced lawns-tn) from water only off of the Esk River. You can only get it in bottles, and even down here it's $12 a six pack. But oh it is a wonderful waste of $12!!!!

When our friend from Alaska was visiting last month she tried one. She is NOT a beer drinker. In fact she doesn't even like beer (something about how she thinks it all tastes like crap, or some such drivel). However... she loves this beer! So much so that she took a few back home with her.  She's now trying to find a source for it in Anchorage (GOOD LUCK!).

She gave one to the Old Fart (my dad). He didn't like it. What do you expect from someone who drinks Hamm's Light?


Next topic: BIRDS

This morning there were 8 galahs in the feeder, and I got some great shots. However, you don't get to see them till next time. For today I have a couple of shots from the other day...







Ain't they purdy????


Next topic: Adelaide Heat Wave

The weather is finally supposed to break this evening and tomorrow is only going to be 88 in the shade... I think I'll have to put a jacket on, perhaps.

What has the heat been like lately? Well, here's a couple of shots, one is of the shade temp, and the other is in the sun on the bricks next to the pool (did I mention we have a pool?).

The first one is in the shade...





This next one is NOT in the shade (duh)!





Next topic: Story Time with Unkie Dave

I really need to finish the story of how we all almost died in the canoe going down the creek when I was a wee lad. But, I'm not going to do that today. Why not? Cus I've got a great title for the post that has the story and since I'm such a moocher for hits now I'll tell you next time (hint, look out for a cool blog post title tomorrow), but I'll copy in the first post now to not only give all my new readers (thanks all!) something to read, but also so that you won't have to go trolling through the archives looking for it.

Death of a Canoe, Part One (from quite a few months ago):

Now on to the section of Alaskan Dave Down Under which specifically focuses on dave (that's me) growing up (HA!) and having fun in the wilds of the north.

Back in the very early 70's, the family moved from the little trailer in a trailer park off Muldoon into a large house by a lake. Since there was a lake, the Old Fart (my dad) got a canoe for us to play around with in the lake. He got a LAKE canoe. Very long with a square stern (for hanging an outboard motor --it's called a transom).

We had some fun with the canoe on the lake; explored pretty much every inch of it --got bored after a few months and then they (the parents --specifically The Old Fart (my dad)) had the great idea to go down Campbell Creek in it.

Yes, I can hear all of you in Los Anchorage saying how the creek is polluted and we couldn't possibly have done it... Keep in mind this was 35 years ago (you know: back when Benson Blvd didn't exist and Northern Lights Blvd was one lane each way and had just recently been paved? Of course you remember!)! There was still a big salmon run in the creek and there was a race down it each year (stay tuned!!!!).

CC (I'm tired of typing The Creek, or Campbell Creek) is fed by snow melt from up in the mountains nearby. This means that it really really really cold. Did I mention it was a tad bit on the nippy side? CC is also one of those that even though it runs through south Anchortown it's still quite the wild and wooley ride when the water's up.

Once you got past the first few easy miles, it turned into a twisty, turny fun ride. On the inside of each sharp turn were what's called "sweepers". A sweeper is a tree on the bank of a river that has had the bank eroded out from under it so that the tree hangs over the river (or creek in this case). If they only hang down to about 45 degrees you can duck under them and their low-hanging branches, but if they hang lower (sometimes even parallel to the creek) then it's really hard to duck under the branches without hurting yourself massively --so you go around.

On the outside of a turn that has sweepers, there's usually a deep hole in the river bottom formed by the swirling eddy's of the river. Think of them as miniature whirlpools. The water swirls around on the outside of a sharp bend and goes straight down into the river bottom and gouges out such a hole that you are well under water if you tried to stand up in one (don't try it!!!!). Also, the eddy's are a great place for big ole logs to hang out in and jam up against each other. Anything that can't float (like a swamped canoe for example) will be jammed against the logs and then shot to the bottom of the hole along with whatever is in it.

We had been down the creek a few times in the LAKE canoe, but we always got out before the ugly part. Weeeellll... to make a long story even longer, there was this time (after weeks of heavy rains) that we decided to go all the way down to Campbell Lake.

Part Two coming up soon: Does the clan pile into the logjam in a whirlpool or do they get gored by the branches of a sweeper... Da Da Da Dummmmm!

Beat The Heat

Hey! It worked! KEWL!!!! Two (2) days ago I titled a post ADELAIDE HEAT WAVE, and I've had over 100 visitors the last 2 (two) days. Guess there's a trick to getting folks to look at your blog: and that is having a catchy, topical title to each post!  Hey, I can be taught...

Since I've titled this Beat The Heat, then I guess I should get to the pics of moi "beating the heat", otherwise you might sue me for false advertising.

I found out that the picnic table, umbrella, and chairs FLOAT! This means I don't have to wait till the sun swings round to eat in the pool! Notice the chair I'm sitting on...



It was 108 in the shade, and 130 in the sun...





nice of lots shade in the pool now...



The pair of galahs that's been hanging out recently showed up this morning. They had their brekkie with the lorries:




There's 2 or 3 pairs of lorries (rainbow lorikeet) that hang out in one of the gum trees (eucalypt) in the backyard even when they aren't having brekkie or afternoon tea:



I was going to be posting the finish of the canoe story today. It is, however, getting late and hot and I still have to get dinner ready for the clan so y'alls gunna hafta weight till later, cheers!


Update: I forgot to mention that I updated my blogroll with all the Alaskan and cookin' blogs I've found lately. I've also deleted the ones that haven't been updated for a wee bit (and I PROMISE never to be slack in my posting ever ever again!).

If I accidently deleted your blog (or I haven't added you as a new one), then just drop me a nice (or nasty) comment telling me how much you'd love me to blogroll you (or just how little you think of me as a person). Either way, no worries mate!

Adelaide Heat Wave

Now, isn't that tricky of me? Calling a blog post something that could easily be typed in a google search? What a great way to get more hits!

This is now the tenth day (breaks Perth's record!) and it's forecast to continue for at least the next 6 days... That'll be over two weeks with the daily high over 35 C. I know that doesn't sound too hot, but remember that is SHADE temp. I'm going to go look out the window now where my digital temp thingy is sitting on the table next to the pool in the sun. Hang on, be right back.

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I'm back (can you tell?). Temps not too bad, 121 F but it is overcast. That's around 50 C. A lot better than the 140 F I saw a couple of days ago. Still though, I'll be having dinner in the pool again tonight :)

We won't break the all time aussie record held by Marble Bay though... 160 days straight of temps like this! This was back early 1900's and I doubt anyone was living there except for the guy who checked the thermometer.

The good news is that the laundry doesn't take very long to dry out on the line.

A couple of years ago I decided to go on a road bike ride on the hottest day of the summer at the hottest time of day. I know, you are all asking "Why?"

Can I cop out and use Ming's answer of "Why not?"

No, I actually had a reason. See, I used to winter mt bike in the interior of Alaska. Coldest temp I'd ridden at was -58 F (-46 C) with a windchill of -92 F (-70 C). I figured if I went for a ride at +46 C then it would be kinda neat. You know, -46 and +46?

Anyways, I've since found out the +46 C was the shade temp and the temp on the road with no shade or shelter was that +140 F (+60 C).

So NOW I can say (boast) that I've ridden a bicycle for over an hour in a windchill of -92 F AND ridden a bicycle for over an hour with a road temp of +140 F! That's a temp dif of 232 degrees F.

Do I get some sort of prize for this? Or did the Alaska rides freeze my brains and then the Oz rides melted them and they all leaked out?

Do you want to hear about how much fun I had on the road ride when the road temp was 140 F? Well sure you do otherwise you wouldn't have read this far.

All I did was ride from Seacombe Gardens, up South Road hill, around the Happy Valley reservior, back down the hill, and back home. Short ride, I can do it with my eyes closed in less than 40 mins without even breathing hard.

This time it took 1 hour and 15 mins...

I took 3 large water bottles with me, ended up wishing I had 5! As soon as the road tilted upwards it I was breathing fire. Everyone remembers the Balrog scene in LOTR, right? Remember when he was belching fire out? Yeah, that was me going up the hill...

Here's the kicker, the South Road hill is only 4% and it's less than 2 km long! It hurt... I had finished the first water bottle before even getting to the top.

(quick aside: the sun is back out and it's 137.8 F on the white table next to the pool)

On the far side of the reservior there a very short but very steep hill climb, my second bottle was empty before I even got to it. I think this time I was not only breathing fire but actually inside the furnace itself.

The last water bottle I finished up with still 30 mins ahead of me to get home at what was for me a snails pace; I could barely keep up 30 kmh on the flats. When I finally got around the reservior and was done with any hills at all I told myself that it's all downhill from here! Isn't that supposed to the fun part? No traffic (all the smart folk were inside), 3 wide, smooth lanes with nice sweeping curves that are loads of fun! Wee-hoo!

Not this time... not this time...

I had to ride my brakes! Very embarrasing! I wanted to get home as quick as possible, but having 140 degree air shoved into my mouth at 80 kmh didn't sound fun. Besides, when I got going any faster than 60 kmh (38 mph) the hot hot hot air would find it's way around my wrap around sunnies (that's oz for sunglasses) and dry my eyes out so that I couldn't see. Not fun.

When I finally got home, the most wonderful woman in the world (my wife) took one look at me and promptly sat me in front of the a/c and brought me as much luke warm water as I wanted. Apparantly my skin was pale (it was tanned, but not just right then), waxen, my cheeks were sunken and my eye socket were hollow.

The next day I was out for a 2 hour ride, in the early morning before the sun was up! See, I can learn!

All this typing has got me severely heat stressed, so I'm off to the pool, ta.

More heat stuff...

I hope no one minds lots of pics today. I really don't have the energy or brain power to right (write) something humourous. I know I need to finish my Concerning Cilled Canoes and Croutons story, but right now it ain't gonna happen.  As soon as I finish this post I will spend the afternoon in the nice cool pool... it's 90 F in the water, which in infinitely cooler than the air.

First pic is the digital temperate gauge thingy I was telling you about yesterday. Ignore the time as I never bother about the time so it was never set, and ignore the humidity cus I've never calibrated that feature. However... the temp works perfect, it's spot on with other temp readings so I know it's working.

This shot was taken at 3:30 pm yesterday. The sensor was sitting on the white table out by the pool, I didn't cheat and set it on the bricks that had been baking all day.



That's pretty warm... Oh, if you are wondering about the stuff on the table, I was pruning the tomato(e) plants. I stopped counting the tomatoes after we hit 100 tomatoes :)



What does a black cat do when it's this hot out? Well, he flops down on the hot bricks and cooks himself...

I think Bagheera runs on solar power...


What does a cockatoo do? She opens her wings slightly to the breeze to cool off:





There's been a long-billed corella parrot hanging out on the fringes of the cockatoo flock for a while. I've seen him/her a few times now in the last couple of weeks. Things got ugly last week...

The Interloper:



The Guard:



The Showdown:




The Faceoff:




The Attack:




That's all for today folks. Please remember to send cool, cold, frigid weather our way! Thanks for that!  Oh for all you fairbanksans: can someone please get some pics of the ice carvings before they melt? Thanks in advance :)

UPDATE! I almost forgot... what does dave do in this heat? Where does he eat his dinner?

140

Heat update, for those of y'all who's jus' might or mightnotta be int'rest'd...

I happen to have one of those digital temperature doo-hickeys (along with other hickeys!). We normally keep it inside, upstairs. Yesterday, it read 36.1 C which happens to be around 97 F. Yes, the a/c was on... did I mention that was the temp INSIDE?

I just now have put that sucker outside, in the sun, on the table, next to the pool (did I mention I have a pool????). The BOM (Bureau Of Meteorology) says the official temp in the shade hit 40 C (105 F) today. I think I'll find out what the temp in the SUN is... Besides, why should we trust some folks who study meteors to tell us about the weather???

I'll be right back, hang on.

I'm back! Did you miss me???

I've just had a squizz (that's aussie for having a look at something) at my digital temp gauge thingy...

Do you want to know what was displayed on the digital LCD face of if? Well, of course you do! Otherwise you wouldn't be reading this.

59.9 C     that happens to be 140 F

Yes, the temp on the table which is in the sun and is next to the pool is One Hundred Forty Degrees Fahrenheit! That's 140 F.

It's bloody hot out!

If Jill or Geoff or Jillian or Brittany or Ishmael or Dierdre are reading this: LET'S BLOODY-WELL TRADE!!!!!!

HOT

hot... stinky hot... bloody-well hot... fucking hot... worst heat wave in 100 years... isn't our summer supposed to be over???

Now you know why I haven't posted anything for a bit. I've got lots to say, but this computer doesn't run when I'm in my nice, cool, wet, damp pool (which just happens to be where I am most of the time during this).

It started 10 days ago (I think) and the long range forecast is for it to continue for at least that much longer. Tomorrow should be a bit of a break, only 95 F in the shade so that'll be a big relief. After that though it's back up to hot weather.

I'm keeping myself semi-sane by reading about the iditasports, iditarod, ice carvings, and dog mushing; I *think* it's working.

BTW, if any of you think you're cold or that you are tough and macho, then go read this: Jill's subarctic journal.

I'll tell you about the cockatoo singing next time, too bloody hot right now... I'm off to the pool. Which, by the by, is being kept at a nice, cool, friggin cold,  90 F temperature.