Yep.  We have high winds tonight too, a phenomenon called a "sun downer".  And, of course, we just had a house file that has become a vegetation fire not 3 miles from me.  The fire is to the NNW of me and fortunately the winds are NE (from the NE blowing SW.  So I'm probably in OK shape.  There have been mandatory evacuations near the fire.

Stay cold and safe, mates. Summer here isn't being as hot as the three past years, but today and the next few days it'll be in the 95-100ºF max but hopefully the nights will be around 72. I prefer them cooler but won't complain, last year we had a lot of nights around 86.

Not quite that hot here, but probably a bit more humid.

Getting ready to go kayaking tomorrow:

 

Remember - don't start a barbecue in one of those. Because you can't have your kayak and heat it.

Must keep taking the medication.... 

The official photos from the Maryhill G-Ride I posted about a few weeks ago were just dropped, and they got a few of me.

more: https://www.facebook.com/pg/maryhillsratz/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2600681453489793

Cored my first wheels tonight.  The last few slides were rather sketchy.

oh..  that was not a euphemism  ✔️

Guys I just saw in news there is a fire in California... Are everybody sade?

No one in California is safe until the "Trumpkin" goes down in flames!

I saw a purple Infiniti today.  Don't know which one, it was a car.  It was pretty.  I wanted it.

Colie turns 30 on the 4th.  She has never been what she calls "spoiled" before.  I don't call it being spoiled, I just like buying things for people I care about .  Well, new apartment, a rather significant shopping spree at Anthropologie and Nordstrom (some of that was yesterday), shit tons of Harry Potter items (she's obsessed with Harry Potter), and this: This is Toulouse-Lautrec.  He is 10 weeks old, and came from our vet as an adoption. Apparently it takes about 20 minutes and $35 to adopt a cat.  I did not know that.  My mother’s Wire Fox Terrier rescue, almost 10 years ago now, took months of negotiations and hundreds of dollars.  Anyway.  It’s not much of a picture, I know (and that is not my painted toenail, thank you very much). He is very skittish.  

Mostly White Cat and Mostly Black Cat have been having some issues, though Mostly Black Cat ate treats right next to Loosey’s temporary enclosure, and just kinda did some desultory hisses in between bites of Party Mix, so they are coming around (I heard some very, very strange cat sounds, today, which my uncle and the attorney we were talking to could hear in the background, and were concerned about).  He is very, very shy, and very, very beautiful.  This was a gift for my wife, nominally, who turns 30 on Saturday (sometimes I feel like I married a child, when I think about that), but I’m the one who had this little cat (who did freak out, at first, and gave me a good scratching, but calmed down) on my lap, safely scruffed and purring like a lawn mower. I don’t know what I had done to deserve that. I had never held a kitten before, though I have petted a bonafide kitten on occasion; it was a magical thing for me. I think I needed a little bit of life added to mine, with everything going on (I have been on bereavement leave, this week; a cousin, one who looks more like my dad than I ever did, and who left the world in the same manner, and I have my own stuff, of course. I had a little bit of a nervous breakdown, I think). 

I realize that this all sounds weird for bereavement leave.  I am not going to the funeral (I am helping my uncle out, from a distance, as best I can).  I've been set back significantly, personally, in my own journey, and I need to heal a little before Fall rush and my surgery. I am essentially in the ambulatory (and expensive) version of forced bedrest, if that makes sense.  I have worked myself to the bone, and I have not caught a break, other than being hit by a car showing the thyroid issue.

Congratulations on the new kitten. Sorry to hear about the other news.

The best thing you can do with that cardboard carrier is to throw it out - cats can break out of them, and they can run faster than you can.

The book below is recommended.

Oh, that carrier is long gone.  The pic I used was from about 2 seconds after we got him home.

Thank you, that looks like an excellent book for me.  Our two adult cats are wonderful, but that is because my wife (who used to run a small-to-medium mammal shelter, in your city actually!) had time to train them and work with them, when they were kittens, and knew what she was doing.  She goes to grad school, in two weeks: I'm going to need to do some of the lifting, and she can't always be there to tell me what to do.

Edited August 2, 20187 yr by EdipisReks1

Welcome to the serious cat club! Well done.

And sorry to hear about the other woes - that sucks.

Welcome to the club Jacob. Having cat on your lap with purring is really priceless and much more effective than medications I'm taking.

Sorry for other news...

So much going on!  Congrats on the kitty, wishing good thoughts for you, and Happy Birthday to Colie!

1 hour ago, skullguise said:

Congrats on the kitty, wishing good thoughts for you, and Happy Birthday to Colie!

This, and one other piece of (admittedly) unsolicited advice - sometimes when major things go wrong for others that you care about it's easy to be so focused on them that you don't realize that shit is going sideways for you and you end up suffering significantly.  Take care of yourself and your family.

...and this is why you don't go barefoot in my yard at night. 15 cm across and lovely to watch from afar

I have a special song just for you Greg...

 

It's funny how much that song reminds of Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side"

Edited August 3, 20187 yr by Torpedo
I have yet to learn the difference between a song and several songs :(

I still love that Lou Reed song!

Actually that tarantula was very cute looking and timid which is good. Nothing like a aggressive spider attack to ruin one's evening.

I sent this picture to Lance who is still at fencing camp in Italy and told him that if when he gets home he doesn't complete all of his chores he left unfinished, he will see this tarantula again.  ?

On 8/2/2018 at 10:27 PM, n_maher said:

sometimes when major things go wrong for others that you care about it's easy to be so focused on them that you don't realize that shit is going sideways for you and you end up suffering significantly.  Take care of yourself and your family.

You couldn't be more right, Nate.  I'm going to do my best to find employment that doesn't drive me crazy, and let's me actually spend time with my stepson.  He needs it and deserves it.

Started a spreadsheet for scheduling fencing competitions for the next ten months. Booking hotels and airfare begins next week when Mary and Lance return. No one better die or give birth until August 15 of 2019 or life will get real complicated real fast.  

Doubly so, if you happen to be the one giving birth.

On 8/3/2018 at 12:33 AM, Augsburger said:

...and this is why you don't go barefoot in my yard at night. 15 cm across and lovely to watch from afar

My stepson wants a tarantula.  Can we have that one?