I’m so thankful that the “Heat Dome” popped, and ever since it did, it’s been mild and pleasant (albeit rather cloudy). But those clouds stayed away when Helen came to visit for a couple of days! It was so fun (and beautiful), yapping, sipping, nomming. We were invited to join a bunch of neighbors who congregated around our next-door neighbors’ beach firepit Saturday evening and what a ball! We drank wine, roasted hotdogs and marshmallows, and reveled in being able to get together like this now that we’re all vaccinated. (Do those who refuse to vaccinate not want that joy? 99.4% of current Covid deaths are unvaccinated. Darwin/natural selection anybody?)
Ahhhh, it was wonderful. We wondered if there would be very many fireworks since that heatwave dried everything out so much. There were lots of booms and from our deck the night of the 4th we could see *some* pretty stuff, but it was mostly obscured by trees. Our immediate neighbors used to put on a HUGE fireworks show, but haven’t for the past few years, so aside from a LOT of booms (and echos of booms against the uninhabited island across from us), there wasn’t a whole lot to see. And thankfully, there wasn’t any residual BOOMS on July 5th. Wylie seemed slightly upset with all the noise, so we kept both cats inside while we were on the deck and they seemed fine about that.
Speaking of cats, one day when John, Helen, and I were out on the deck, I saw Nikki in a bushy area lunging at something and I said, “Uh oh, Nikki just caught something.” And as she is wont to do, she immediately started to transport it down the deck, aiming for the open window to haul it inside. But John cut her off at the pass (although she hilariously tried to sneak around him) and IT WAS ANOTHER SNAKE!!! Jeebus! (Oh! And also? I found another separated lizard tail on the floor the other day. Where the hell is the rest of the lizard?)
Nate left for his lengthy “underway” shortly after Father’s Day and so here we go. He likely won’t return until the end of August at the earliest. I know this has to be hard for Sandra. In fact, we’ll be heading up to Everett in a couple of weeks to watch Quinn for a workday when the daycare is off for a holiday (the owner and her family are Palestinian so they have some additional holidays). I’m hoping the weather is good so we can take him to a beach or a park. Maybe we’ll take him to MacDonald's! Ha!
We've seen a couple of these "hover boards" out on the water this spring and summer and they are EERIE! They are silent (electric) and the guy(s) really seem to be "hovering!" They go pretty fast, too!
“Before leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts. For in their opinion, facts depend entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.” -Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
