Weblog 333

July 1, 2012~ 12:00 am
Boy, this week went FAST! (Perhaps, only because one day melted into the next as the thermometer climbed to SCALDING heights.)



Summer arrived in flaming HEAT this year. That picture above may describe 'heaven' to some of you, but for me, the prospect of boiling like a lobster, on scratchy sand... in blinding sunlight... is the very picture of hell itself.

Thursday into Friday morning was a record breaker here in Pittsburgh. Daytime in the 90's and the night never cooled down. Not at all. It was 85 f*cking DEGREES when I got up in the pre-dawn warmed, wet blanket of choking misery. Heat makes me CRAZY. If ever I do become 'homicidal', trust me...... it'll be in the summer months.

To many of you, I realize I'm speaking to deaf ears. People seem to LOVE the summer weather. It's a picture of 'fun in the sun' and laid back lounging, sunglasses on and simply grooving on the rising temperature.



Yah... just laying there looking like Audrey Hepburn in over-sized dark glasses, beach combing and tanning happily. Not me. No. HERE'S me.....



sweat stains under the arms, frown on my face, scowling and losing about a quart of liquid an hour.

Friday also happened to be Wayne's last day at work before the lay-off. Now that it's happened, it's water under the bridge. So it's 'onward to unemployment filing'-- via this old computer tomorrow.

He wore SHORTS and a cut-off T-shirt into work... LOL!! (And, can you believe it.... the bitch who's in charge of his 'out-sourced department', at the last minute, ACTUALLY had him walk up through town to have his 'exit interview'... in that POT-BOILER of a day! Typical. Not one person during this entire debacle has shown a single ounce of courtesy or consideration, so none of this surprised me.)

As it turned out, he was presented with pages of legalese that read like a 'please don't sue me' contract. (Of course, he'll sign nothing.) What's the point? ... and since it appears to be a last minute, urgent task she was instructed to finish, we are very suspicious. (His 401K money is still tied up with them and NOTHING has been finalized, explained or addressed in any way at all.)

That's America in 2012, folks. Get used to it.

No movies this weekend. Too hot, and Saturday evening we saw Holly and family. We checked out Gary's garden- (which is truly REMARKABLE. He's got a zucchini plant in there that looks like Audrey II from "The Little Shop of Horrors". LOL!!! The thing is HUGE!) It has personality... (and probably intelligence.) I know I was careful not to get too close to it!

Their two standard poodles have been shaved down and feel like soft little lambs. They're so cute those two, always waiting to greet us at the door with some goofy 'gift' in their mouths. Always... a shoe, a sock, a squeeze toy..... somehow they feel it's incumbent upon them to 'present' us with something, and it kind of makes me feel like visiting royalty. LOL!!!

Kay and Bill followed me outside when I went out to grab a smoke, and insisted I tell them what I thought was the scariest movie I'd ever seen. Now, I LOVE scary movies, but after thinking about it, I told them the original 'The Haunting'- (not the remake, that was crap) but the ORIGINAL black and white film scares me every time.

Naturally they wanted to hear what it was about, so I launched into a summation of the plot, watching their eyes getting bigger and bigger as I described the "BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!" in the night, and "OH, GOD.....WHO WAS HOLDING MY HAND?" Mouths hung open like two little carp. LOL!!! (Oh well... if there are sleep problems this week, I confess.. it's my fault.)

Our national Independence Day falls weirdly on Wednesday this coming week. No long weekends with this celebration, just an island in the middle of the work week. (A week, alas..... in the 90's is predicted for the next seven days at least.) HOW WILL I SURVIVE???? Anyway, for those who like a good firecracker/fireworks display



-that graphic's for you. Enjoy the hotdogs and the sparklers. Jump in the pool. Above all else......stay cool in whatever way is available to you.

And guess what I bought myself while grocery shopping Saturday evening? A spritzer spray bottle... and not for plants.) Oh, no.... it's to squirt myself IN THE FACE! I found that constantly wetting my face while having the fan turned on me increases its cooling effect a HUNDREDFOLD. Try it... make-up be damned. (It's gonna slide off your face anyway. :)




July 4, 2012~ 5:00 pm
Independence Day! (And for ME, it actually is.) Hot as BLAZES out there with no relief in sight till the beginning of next week when Hell shall slip down a notch or two and into the less charcoal briquette range (dropping to merely the high 80's.) LOL!!!

No picnics, no parties for THIS GIRL... because ....I AM AN ODDBALL like this vintage 1951 Buick LeSabre, weird as can be.



Doesn't that thing look like a creature out of Matt Groening's 'Futurama'?....a one-eyed dream of 'the rocket and Space Age' the 50's LOVED SO MUCH. (Actually, what I REALLY resemble is this....



a not-often seen Healey Abbott, shop worn and beginning to rust- and different enough to be labeled 'type: Unknown'.) LOL!!!

I slept all day in the air-conditioned bedroom, rising at 2:30 p.m., quite happy to be 'holed up'.

Yesterday evening Wayne and I feasted at Calabria's, where I had the ALL AMERICAN SUPPER: pot roast, mashed potatoes and corn, and it was FABULOUS. I thought it was a nod to the 4th, serving a meal as iconic as apple pie- but the waitress told me it's the Tuesday special every week. Hmmmmmmm..... something to keep in mind, because it was slobbery good. :)

We watched (despite the humid living room last evening) an older comedy I'd never seen- 'The Life Aquatic' with Bill Murray and Angelica Huston. You either love him or hate him, but Wes Anderson's films make me howl. This particular one was a send-up parody of the Jacques Cousteau's TV specials about life aboard the Calypso.

Steve Zizzou is Cousteau's counterpart (played by Murray in the Anderson film) adrift on a 'Disneyland' version of the Calypso called 'The Bellefonte'. LOL!!! It's a look at the 'down on his luck' Zissou, trying to make a comeback, trying to make sense of his life's work- which in his middle years, doesn't seem to amount to much. He's chasing the elusive 'Jaguar Shark' - a creature many believe he'd made up; a creature who had EATEN his best friend and first mate, though many believe Zissou had killed the man himself. I loved it, but Wayne's take was lukewarm.

Tomorrow it's back to work for the second 'mini-week' within one full usual one. Till then, I'll remain in my bubble, safe and protected, air and atmosphere carefully controlled.....





... and simply chill. (Actually, that looks VERY MUCH like the fantasy that puts me to sleep at night: just after I turn out the lights and punch the pillow into soft acceptance of a weary head, I pretend I'm in a kind of 'Snow White' glass coffin where there are flowers all around and blue skies and -though the world outside those walls be fraught with chaos- INside, I'm safe and protected.) Ah..... fantasies.





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