Of Heat waves and updates and insanity~~~~

Hello Darklings,

We have been having another bad heat wave, it has been up in the triple digits inland, like 109 in Redding and 105 in Concord.   I have been using the drip system on what plants I have, but only in the evening and at night.

I've even put up bird baths of water in the shady areas of the garden and even for humming birds,  I have this wonder sage bush called Autumn Sage and the hummingbirds love it,   exotic plants I have none, the heat would kill them.    So I switched to lavender, and other plants that can tolerate this heat, my roses are surviving, they've been getting grey water, as well as the Bay tree and the fruit trees, my water cisterns are dry, so I'm having a specialist check them out for cracks and such.

The heat was so bad that we slept outside on the screened in back porch, my brother has a similar porch on his house and has done the same thing, but he's not home enough for the children to camp out in it as they have been traveling hither and yon, to various historic spots in their RV, but mostly on the coast because of the heat,  both he and my sister in law took 6 weeks off for vacation for the children to enjoy.  And with Wi Fi at a number of the camp grounds they can stay in touch with their respective offices for just in case.

They will be back next week (I think) and in time to get the children ready for school, the twins don't want to think about it, Coraline and Christopher are sort of concerned and excited about it. The parents?  Well what do you think parents would do when school is back in session?   

The wild fires around the state is worrisome, especially when they are close to those historic towns in the Gold Country area.   It doesn't take much for something to happen, perhaps the coolest areas is Daley City and San Francisco, thank goodness the marine layer has come back in.   But for how long I'm not sure.

Poor Belladonna and Weinerdog,  it's so hot that we have to leave them either at a doggie day care or with my elderly neighbor if we have to go somewhere and can't take them.   What surprised me at my elderly neighbors house is she got a plastic pool that kiddies use and put water in it and has it in the shade and both dogs took to it to play in with their smaller tennis balls and chew toys (not cloth)  She told me that it was like watching children play.   Then in the evening when they've been picked up she uses the water to irrigate her herb garden.   That's how I got my Autumn Sage.

Of course the heat has made for insanity as well, our neighbors crazy son whom we call "Crazy" went off the rails again,  calling the police 3 times in 7 days is too much, but I thought we could not do a restraining order----BUT----if some of you remember when I talked about "Officer Cutie" (he's married folks ---darn!)  well he came out on the last call and said that there is such a thing called a "No Harassment" or "No Contact" order, this is used on stalkers and other non-close to family situations  I think some places call it a "Stay-Away" order,  and we do qualify to submit that,  whether it will be granted it up to the Judge, so we're going to get the paperwork and I need to get some of the copies of the Incident Reports put together, now it will depend upon if I want to do it myself or have my lawyer do it, but from what I've seen it's almost "do it yourself".   But at least now I have a "tool" that if granted, I can use. 

And if "Crazy" violates it, he will be arrested and I hope get put in a place where he'll get the help he needs.

Since the last incident things have been quiet, I hope it does, it almost seems to come in waves really, 6 to 8 weeks of quiet then 7 to 10 days of insanity.  I guess it takes that long for the "voices in his head" to get really loud.

And we are going to have a Blue Moon tomorrow night----my Grandmother use to call it a wishing moon, make a wish to banish a problem she'd say.    I think I'm going to do that.

Oh and Halloween is just 90 days away----Oh HAPPY, HAPPY, JOY, JOY!!!!

Unless we get a very serious El Nino---although that would put a kibosh on Halloween---again happy happy joy joy---we need WATER!!!

A friend of mine sent me this funny thing about if all 50 states were people in a bar what would they be like and what would they drink----I found it very funny,  I'll post it in my next post.

Oh and I KNOW what I want for Christmas----Dita Von Teese's latest book "You Beauty Mark"  it's coming out in December,  and I WANT a copy!!  Hint, Hint to Doyle (eye-wink)  Yes my Darklings, Dita is coming out with her own beauty book, if nothing else I want it for human interest factor to see what she says about things.   Of course we all have our own ways of maintaining our looks, for me it's to avoid the sun between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and use Neutragena Sun Block at SPF Factor 100, yes they do make it. And there are other things as well. 

But one factor is one's own DNA you cannot fight that, but you can try.

Who knows Darklings, even for the Glamour Goth you can always study the tips from the pro's.

Later Darklings

Of Exhausted from the Heat Wave and phone lines cut~~~~

Hello Darklings,

I have not posted of late because we are having problems with "someone" vandalizing my phone lines as well as Doyles'.

We have two separate lines coming to the house one is for Doyle for his work and the other is what I call "the house phone" and they are both hard wire.   I will not use Wi-Fi and I admit it's a personal prejudice on my part.

But it's because if there is an emergency,  at the dispatchers our address and information comes up immediately and even if I can only "gurgle" they know where to send help, that is one advantage, also one of our neighbors complains that his wi-fi keeps getting hi-jacked.   As my Daddy would say "Somethings Up".

So hard-wire it is.   We Know who is doing the vandalizing, because he keeps hearing the "voices in his head".   So right now I'm posting this from a friends computer. 

So now we are going to cover the phone lines with conduit pipe, which should frustrate this sick individual further and install more motion detector lights that are Solar powered.   I hope we don't have to do any further protection on our electrical wires.  But who knows.

My brother and his family are off on another RV adventure, to which Chris and Coralline are thrilled about.   They should be back by this weekend.  And I cannot wait to hear all about it

What legal steps we can do right now we don't know,  but we can do things to protect our property, shining the light of truth upon this person is one thing, no more hiding in the shadows.

Hurricane Delores, downsized to tropical depression, then Low pressure is making things around here hot and muggy and airless.

She did kindly drop off rain to help the fire fighters in Southern California in El Cajhon but after the fire jumps the highway burning cars, and buildings, thank goodness no one was killed.   But she did cause another freeway to wash away.   We are hot in the north and drowning in the South.

Doyle, my Sister, Brian and I have been sleeping on the back sleeping porch at night, it is just too hot indoors,  doing anything outdoors is impossible,  I water the plants at night when it's cool and pray it does not give rise to the natural blood suckers, mosquito's.

Eating is impossible as drinking water is more important.    I pity anyone who lives in the Southern States if this is  what you have to deal with.  

My team of cleaning ladies came by this morning and I told them to just focus on the down stairs, upstairs is too hot, but they did tackle two of the upstairs bathrooms,  I gave them chilled bottles of water  and made sure they rested as well.   I wasn't too concern about dust today.

But my Darklings I wanted to let you know I'm still among the living but melting like the Witch in the Wizard of Oz.    I'm almost afraid that Doyle may find me just a melted puddle,  and now I'm going to take a page from Belladonna's and Weiner Dog's book, put a fan on me, lay down and sleep.

Later Darklings 

Of Another Heat Wave and County Fairs~~~~

Hello My Darklings,

We are having another heat wave,  the temperatures have been going from the upper 60's on the coast to 108 degrees inland,  very worrisome for the elderly and pets,  our temperatures have been hovering in the mid 80's here,  both Belladonna and Weinerdog are getting to be old hands at this, damp towels, fans, plenty of water and easy access to the shaded back porch if so desired.

We've been eating lightly, mostly salads, when it becomes this hot drinking water is far more important than food.  

The house does not have air conditioning we really don't need it here in the Bay Area but when it gets hot, it Get's HOT!!  So the fans are on all over the house.   It will cool down towards the weekend.

My brother and his family made an unusual decision, they wanted to see a lot different events happening at the County Fair including on the last day Demolition RV's, think of the Demolition Derby with oldest, scroungiest RV's that should no longer be on the road and you've got the idea.

But through out there were other things they wanted to see, but always best to go towards the later afternoon very early evening.  So what he did was pack his wife and kids into the RV he had made reservations at this RV park that is right next to the Fair Grounds some months ago, and that way it was no problem to go from the RV to the Fair and he got passes for the Fair for the entire time, Midway rides are extra. 

So with that the children could sleep in, they'd make breakfast there, their RV is air conditioned, and planning to see everything.  

Doyle and I managed to get there to see some of the things but it seems the children were interested in the Animals, and of course the rides,  fortunately I had my parasol and we packed lots of water.

Coralline loved the All Alaskan Pig Races,  and the petting zoo and this magician juggler pirate called Capt. Jack Spareribs,  he did Johnny Depp better than Johnny Depp, and she and Christopher were fascinated by the old time farming equipment, and the miniature train lay out, of course the twins wanted to do the rides, and see the reptiles, but with this extreme heat my brother had called me and said no one was going out until the shadows were long, mostly sleeping in. 

But I insisted on my once a year traditional frozen banana treat,  I had to have it.  An buying Fair Fudge, I remember how Mother insisted on buying the Fair Fudge, and Dad would watch the fellow demonstrate this fishing lure that acted like a fish underwater, and every time he bought a lure, and how we watched baby chicks hatch and brought home 3 of them, 2 newly hatched and an older bird that Dad said would act like a mother to them and did, except it wasn't a hen but a rooster.  And one of the other chicks was a rooster,  two roosters and one hen was not a good thing so a farmer that Dad knew took them in, said one of them was an exotic Silky, he had a hen for it, the other would replace his old rooster that died.  

Mom was worried that the neighbors would complain about the crowing at 6:30 in the morning, like clockwork.  The funny thing, the neighbors complained because we Did get rid of the roosters, those roosters became their alarm clocks.   Oh well, things were different then, now a days someone most likely would poison them or turn then into bar-be-que.   

Different times, pleasant memories.  And the Watkins people, Mom always bought their spices, I do as well, sometimes I put in a phone order when I run out of something.  Lovely memories.

The boys were telling me about the fireworks every night which we saw, the 4th of July is going to be very spectacular.

But it was a good thing we managed to go before the heat wave hit.   My brother calls every day to let us know they are fine, no sunburns, or heat prostration and it's a good work out with the RV and at least not too far away.

Of course he wants to plan on some weekend trips as well, but with all these wild fires he is concerned.  He's thinking of going north again seems both Christopher and Coralline want to see the Trees of Mystery, and may be Crater Lake in Oregon. 

I am so glad they are having fun, escaping from the worries of things. Both Doyle and I have been collecting Mail and Newspapers at their house, while we were at the Fair, Brian watched the dynamic duo for us.

"Crazy Son" has been very, Very quiet,  but as Doyle says "It's just the lull before the next Storm".  Well that will be for another time, should anything happen.

Now I'm just paying bills, and relaxing, 4th of July will be quiet for us, Doyle wants to bar-be-que, so tomorrow I'm buying chicken wings and baby back ribs, we have our lemonade dispensers but with the family at the Fair it will only be just us Doyle, Sis, Cousin Louise and her room mate, Brian and our elderly neighbor, just a small affair, and I'll have to give the nerve pills to the dogs so they will not be upset by any fireworks set off, we will keep a close eye on them, keep them indoors for safety sake.

And you my Darklings have a safe and sane 4th of July.

Later Darklings