Of the Heat---The Hellacious Heat!!~~~~~~~

Hello Darklings,

We are having another heat wave and it is a killer, totally “Hellacious”, I cannot believe that for the first time in over a hundred years we hit 101 degrees, and inland 115,  San Francisco hit 106, the last time it was that hot in the City was 103 degrees when Ulysses S. Grant was President.

And the weatherman is saying that today will be even hotter!!   On top of that we are having heavy haze coming down to the ground, all from the various wildfires that at burning here and in near by Western States, the Easterly wind is bringing it making breathing conditions horrible.

Well I did have to open my mouth and ask where was the Summer weather, I guess that will teach me.

The school that Christopher and Coralline and the twins their air conditioning system failed, so all the parents were called to pick up their children, my brother and sister in law couldn’t do it, so I came to the rescue,  we stopped by their house to pick up everyone a change of clothing and then on to my home, where I had the misters’ going on the screened back porch, to create a cooling environment, I do not have air conditioning but I do have fans.

It didn’t matter in my house if you were inside or outside, the temperature was equal,  Sis has a window mounted air conditioner in her office for hot days for her clients comfort,  but once she saw her last client she turned it off, to do her part to not strain the power grid.

Poor Coralline she was still wearing the compression brace on her ankle but the heat was making her ankle swell up,  Christopher removed it and I iced it, and had her laying down on the chaise lounge,  the twins being their goofy selves, put on the lawn sprinkler and somehow packed their water guns and were playing getting wet in the heat,  while Coralline and Christopher emulated the dogs and myself and simply laid down and drank water.

My brother and sister in law joined us, and so did Sis, she suggested that the children sleep on cots in her office with the air conditioner,  she was going to do the same, but Coralline wanted to sleep on the back porch, so the twins and their Mother went, while everyone else slept on camp cots or lawn lounge chairs on the porch, my brother said he would sleep on the porch as well, and with Belladonna and Weiner Dog to protect us from evil squirrels or other nocturnal creatures we managed to pass a comfortable night.

And now we are facing another hot day, my brother and sister in law have left early to do grocery shopping,  Sis and I will be leaving in a few minutes to do the same, Doyle said he’ll watch the children with the dogs.  And except for the children doing their homework, we are doing nothing today.

The misters because they are wetting down the air seems to be making breathing on the back porch a little easier I kept it going till late last night and I'll do the same today.

At least the weatherman is saying that by Monday we should start seeing a decrease in the temperature,  all we can do is rest,  stay in the shade and drink lots of water.   Thank Goodness I don’t live in Death Valley.

Later Darklings

The Heat Wave continues and Adam West~~~~

Hello Darklings,

The Heat Wave continues, although temperatures are a little cooler where I'm at, its still triple digits inland.

Using the misters have helped a lot cooling things down,  Doyle and I slept in the screened in back porch,  so did Coralline and Chris and my sister in law Maureen,  my brother had to go home and guard the house,  the twins are at their Aunt and Uncle's place he has air conditioning and a pool.

Sorry, being an elder Goth I will not go pool side during the heat of the day, give me the evening with the stars and the moon(if it's out) soft candle light and the pool as a reflecting pool of serenity, playing soft music and drinking chilled Chablis.   I know what I like.

With this heat I've not been able to really hunt for Goth like things,  the hot sun drives away the Fog and the bats,  however Doyle needs to get a new vehicle,  he's been using the company cars since his own car was shot up by a very angry criminal culprit,  the insurance company totaled it out.  I am so Glad he didn't borrow my car.

So he will use the company cars while on assignments, take public transportation to work, but at my insistence I've been encouraging him to look at the Nissan Rogue Midnight Edition in Magnetic Black,  I mean everything all black, black wheels, black body, dark interior and good gas mileage.

Very Goth if you are car shopping, I like it.  In a way it has a sort of Bond-like quality.

And I also got lucky and found some of my favorite nail polish in "Bite the Bullet"  Sally Hansen,  I will not wear the tropical colors, although I did find a few summer cotton dresses in black with white tropical flowers,  and a new sun hat in black.    I mean the lightest color I will wear is "Wet Cement"  which reminds me of burying the bodies when I want to get rid of them (sorry my fiendish mind is working).

Doyle and I started watching the Dirty Harry series with Clint Eastwood, we are in those hot vengeance mind thoughts of late.  I think it has something to do with the heat.

And I'm still devastated, another icon passed away earlier this month, Adam West T.V's Batman, he was 88,  the last time I saw him was when he made a guest appearance on "The Big Bang Theory"  He managed to keep working even after being typed cast as Batman, but frankly I liked his tongue in cheek performance, a friend of mine gave me a copy of his "Back to the Bat Cave" autobiography, I think I'll read it this weekend.

But the City of Los Angeles has done a beautiful memorial, they lit the Bat Signal on City Hall.  He will always be remembered.

Later Darklings

Farewell Batman, you are always in our hearts....

Of the HEAT!! The Bone Melting HEAT!!

Hello Darklings,

We are having a heat wave, triple digits inland,  and don't get me talking about Death Valley, but it has and is bone melting heat, enough to make a person melt like Margret Hamilton in "the Wizard of Oz"

Yesterday was horrible,  I had misters and fans going on in the back porch, I always knew where to find the dogs,  and I had fans going on all over the house to circulate the air.

Even the children came over and rested on the back porch to keep cool,  my sister in law was sick with the heat, we had to keep her hydrated, and we could barely eat anything. 

I made veggie salads with lemon juice for dressing, and had chilled water and plenty of ice for everyone.

Doyle was a hero and went to the store and bought lemon and orange sherbet, grapes, tangerines and oranges, cherries and strawberries and I put them all on ice to keep chilled. 

I made sure I wore my Neutragena  Sun Gard  SPF 110 even indoors, and always wore my wide brim out if I went outdoors.

I was up at 5:30 a.m. just as dawn was cracking to walk the dogs,  never have I felt so much like a vampire keeping away from the sun.

It's been miserable for Coralline because of her broken ankle but she got some good news today, she's been upgraded to a figure 8 cross brace, no more with that Frankenstinian boot,  and her friends from school have been supportive knowing she has to be held back a year, but Coralline is taking it very well.   She does have to go back and do physical therapy to relearn to walk with not one, not two but 7 screws and a metal plate in her ankle.  

But with school part of the problem is she may have to do a substitution for Phys Ed.  she cannot do dance nor any of the sports,  but she's not the only one, it seems another girl and a boy are in the same situation, so they are thinking special exercise classes as well as writing papers on health,   but Coralline says that as long as she can work on the school paper as part of her extra credit for English she's happy.

Her parents are having to adjust their vacation schedule because of the physical therapy,  and the extreme heat but are hoping to take a vacation North again, going into the Oregon Coast, then plan on traveling south in the fall,  they want to take in some of the California Missions in the South,  I might go with them.    When the heat wave breaks they want to go back to Coloma and visit old Dan again, I know Coralline and Chris will be happy to see him.   Dan is stabling a couple of rescue horses and said he'd show the children how to ride and care for them.  

How long this Heat Wave will last we're not sure, the weatherman said that by next weekend it should start to cool down.   I hope so,  otherwise I shall have to live my life as if I was living in Spain, do things early in the morning---long siesta in the afternoon and do things in the evening and late at night---hmmm that wouldn't be bad for an Elder Goth.

Later Darklings 

Of the Heat Returning~~~~

Hello Darklings,

They say (whomever "they" are) that we really don't have Summer here in the Bay Area until September, well this year "they" were wrong given our series of heat waves.

But after the cool weather and the lovely one day splash of rain, the heat has returned, not as unbearable as before but enough to make one not want to do anything, and that is exactly what Sis, Doyle, Brian and the Dymanic Duo are doing, nothing!

We're reading, snoozing, chatting, snoozing, laughing, snoozing, and generally relaxing and snoozing today and frankly we deserve it.

Sis and I have been painting our nails with this lovely color called "Meet me at the Mirage"  put out by China Glaze, for a bronze frosted I like the way it looks,  on fingers and toes, of course with the nail lacquer drying we cannot do anything.   So Doyle and Brian have offered to get our favorite go-to take out  Chinese, nothing to cook, and with paper plates but regular forks etc. wash up is a minimum.

My brother and his family are being serious travelers with their R.V.  They went to Columbia State Park and it was open but the festivities were canceled because of air quality due to the Butte Fire, but for them all was not lost.

This weekend they went back to Placerville,  and to that antique shop my sister in law fell in love with.  And next weekend back to Columbia again.  The children are loving this travel.  It's going to be hard when the rains start up for them.

The other day Sis came across this receipe and it is so lovely for Indian Summer that I'm going to share it with all of you.

Whipped Pineapple Pops Recipe

If you have ever been to Disneyland, they have this amazing thing called a Dole Whip.  It’s like a fluffy, creamy tangy pineapple treat that people actually wait in line for 30 minutes for. 

There are a couple of ways you can do this.  You can either used crushed pineapple or fresh pineapple.  We chose to use crushed since that is what I had on hand.  This recipe makes quite a bit of ‘whip’, so you can cut it in half if you aren’t making it for very many people.  We used 2 – 20oz cans of crushed pineapple.  Drain one can and include the juice of the other can.  Whenever I buy canned fruit, I always buy ‘Naturally Sweetened’.  The fruit that is canned in syrup contains a lot of extra sugar and so make sure you buy naturally sweetened.  If you are using fresh pineapple, you will probably need an entire pineapple, cut up into chunks. Whatever pineapple you decide to use, place it in a high powered blender.  If you like a little more tart flavor you can add the juice of a fresh squeezed lime. 

If your pineapple isn’t very sweet, you can add 1-2 tablespoons of your favorite sweetener, but it isn’t necessary.  Blend until it is a smooth, frothy consistency. The next step is to combine with your creamy ingredient.  We used cream that we whipped because we were going for an extra fluffy rich texture.  But you can also use almond milk, coconut milk (full fat works best) (think Pina colada) half and half, or whatever you prefer. If you use whipped cream, you can put the mixture in the freezer for a bit and just serve it as a ‘Dole Whip’.

Otherwise, pour your mixture into Popsicle molds and you have Whipped Pineapple Pops!

Ingredients:

2 - 20 oz cans naturally sweetened crushed pineapple OR 1 large fresh pineapple, cut into chunks

Juice of 1 lime

1 1/2 cups cream, almond milk, or coconut milk (full fat works best for the most creamy consistency)

Directions:

Place pineapple and lime juice in a high power blender. Blend until smooth and frothy.

Combine with creamy liquid.

Pour mixture into popsicle molds and freeze until hardened.

Enjoy!

Well we made this on Thursday evening a small batch and by using the coconut milk we found that to be best, so we made it last night for today, for dessert.   And it's heaven.  But if you Darklings decide to use something else that's just fine. 

 But it is perfect on a hot day.

Enjoy Darklings

Of the unrelenting continuing HEAT!!!

Hello Darklings,

We are still in the high 90's and in some places at triple digits, a number of schools are having minimum school days, senior centers are having cool down places for folks. 

My sister in law called me this morning to see if I could pick up the children from school as the school was having problems with their air  conditioning system and have called for a minimum day.

So I picked them up went to their house to change out of their uniforms and into comfortable clothing and then on to my house for lunch, I was surprised they all wanted Mac and Cheese with bacon bits,  Easy to do, ice water with a bit of lemon juice in it with lunch, and orange sherbet for dessert.  And surprise!  Even the twins are exhausted from the heat, and didn't complain that I only had sherbet,

Right now the children are in the spare air conditioned room napping, then when they wake up I'll have them doing home work, even though minimum day, homework never stops.   I called their Mom to let her know they are safe, and for her and my brother to come over for dinner, a light vegetable soup,  fresh sour dough bread and butter, and a crisp salad, and more orange sherbet for dessert.

I had shopped late yesterday evening at the store after the sun went down.

When I went to School I never remembered having such hot after Labor Day days that the school would call a minimum day, we all suffered with the open windows, make shift hand fans, paper cups of water that the teachers provided,  and easy assignments like read a chapter or do one page of problems.

But that was then, this is now.  

 I remember when as a child during the summer if we had really hot days, Mom and Dad (if it was his day off) would get up very early even just before the sun would rise, and do what they had to do for the day if it was something out doors.   Then for the rest of day they would rest, relax or do simple things indoors. 

Even my Uncle Henry when he retired to the Gold Rush Country said the best time to do things is in the early morning and then stop at 11 a.m. and just rest, not until 7 or 8 p.m. would he and his wife go into town for Grocery shopping or anything and there were businesses that would stay open until 10 or 11 p.m. during the summer and early Fall because of the heat. 

I know at some places inland like in Lompoc the Target and Wal-mart Stores are open 24 hours a day because of the heat, and heavily air conditioned.   And in Mexico and South America even in Spain and Portugal where they suffer from extreme heat, everyone sleeps in the afternoons and do not open up again until the evening, unless it’s a medical or dental emergency.     

 So during this heat wave we should do the same thing, unless we are lucky and have an air conditioned office, but best to take your lunch to work and not venture outside. 

And now I feel sleepy too, Doyle is at his office in the city having taken BART, my Sister has a number of clients today, I said they could park in my driveway if there is no on street parking, her office is air conditioned as well as her Tiki Room (her private indulgence) Brian had to go to his companies office today for a meeting so he and Doyle went in Doyles car to the BART station.

For me it's just watching the children the two legged ones and the four legged ones, I did check on my elderly neighbor and she is doing fine she has fans on including a heavy duty Habor Bay one, and plenty of water, she has a timer to remind her to drink some every 15 minutes to stay hydrated, but I'll check on her again later this afternoon. 

Now I'm going to nap for a bit until someone or something wakes me up.

Later Darklings