Hazy, lazy, crazy days of summer

It's still hot. It's still not raining ... well, other than a couple of brief (a few minutes long) rains that revive the flowers for a while. It was over 100 degrees again today, then the little rain lowered the temperature 30 degrees. Afterwards, the temperature climbed again, though not so high. We've been trying to keep the lawn alive ... many people have given up and have brown and crispy lawns. Our garden is doing well. Tomatoes love hot weather, though ours are very slow to turn red or yellow (we have two kinds).

Grandniece Ava and I attempt to get her on the floating tiger.

I tried to get closer to the sign, but the boxer on the right growled and tried to chase me away. OK, dog, I'm going.

Hey, it's hot outside. The boys decided to rest inside with the AC.

One of our cantaloupes. I'm just amazed that stuff is actually growing out there.

The new motion sensor in the laundry room. No more light switches. Love it!

The replacement ceiling fan in our bedroom. The old one was big, dark, ugly, and somewhat creepy.

Weird weather

It's been hotter than a pistol. Day after day over 100 degrees. On June 29, we were hit by a derecho - which I'd never heard of until it roared through. It's a straight-line windstorm, as opposed to a tornado which rotates. Also, derechos are long-lived. I was confused by the straight-line definition, because I thought "derecho" was Spanish for "right." Turns out it means both things. Go figure. Anyway, the derecho came down on us and ripped limbs off trees (none of ours) and left lots of people with no power (luckily again, not us). Then two days later, on July 1st, we were hit by a severe thunderstorm that ripped some more limbs off trees and knocked out electricity again (this time, ours was off for about 5 hours). Excitement all around.

This limb came down at the golf course. Note my bike in the lower left.

I think the limb above smacked into this dumpster. The tree limb won that round.

A hackberry tree with nearly half itself gone.

A common job after both storms - roof repair.

Our first tomatoes! They're Elbertas.

No, he's not dead. This squirrel was tucked into the dirt on a hot day. Perhaps he was contemplating life.