And Here's Friday Rolling Around Again

Wasn't it just Friday the other day?  Oh, no, that was the 4th on Wednesday.  Felt like Friday, though, didn't it?  It zoomed up to 99 degrees in Green Bay yesterday and I was surprised to be busy at the dive shop.  People came in and actually bought things. (a couple even used cash)  Amazing.  I even stayed a half hour late to finish a quote that a customer wanted to receive by email last night.  Of course, that means he'll work with Mrs. Boss today and she'll be the one whose name's on the invoice... but since I don't get a commission it doesn't really matter, I'll know that I've done the work for that sale... if he buys anything.  (ooh, I love ellipses)  It's supposed to be not quite as hot today.  I need to go get my nails done (too many typos lately) then I have to do some shopping and let Porty out to potty.  She'll probably skulk out to the shade and flop down.  If I toss her ball she might, might, chase it and deign to bring it back, but she'll probably just give me a look.  On Tuesday she was fetching the ball, jumped into her pool on the run, and skidded across it sending up quite a wave.  She just plopped down and enjoyed the cool.  Funny.  And of course when she got out she stood right next to me to shake.  I didn't really mind, my erranding was done and the water was cool, it felt good.  Beverly smells a bit doggy in this heat.  I want to take out the sheet that's tucked over the back seat and shake it out.  No one sits back there so I don't mind the hair, it's the smell.  Dive water smell I don't mind, dog smell, not so much.  Yesterday morning before work and before it really started to bake I got a trowel and planted the packets of shallot sets I got (for 17 cents each) at Stein's on Tuesday.  It was a good thing that I got an extra packet as at least one of the 8 in each was wasted away to the paper skin,  I planted them a lot closer together than you're supposed to (I always do that) but I think they'll be okay.  Durwood saved one back to plant in a pot in the house.  Why, I don't know, but he wanted to and what's the harm, so we'll see.  Today's Photo A Day theme is "chair."  This is my Emma's chair from The Clearing.  I love to sit in it on my patio.  Maybe if the temps ever drop below "sizzle" I'll get to sit in it again.  Meanwhile the paper wasps use it for raw materials.  See the pale strips on the arm support?  That's where legions of wasps have come and stripped off a tiny bit at a time to fly away to build their nests.  Kinda cool in an "ew" kind of way.  Science-y.  I am totally looking forward to it being in the 80s for the next week.  80 doesn't sound cool until you say "it was 99 at 5:30 yesterday with 73% humidity for a heat index of 107" that 80 really comes into its own.  If it's going up to 80 later, Skully and I can walk along the trail with Porter and not skip walking like we do if it's too hot.  We bad.

July 6--Sidney Nichols Shurcliff, Men in Two Canoes, 1929, Papua New Guinea.  The water surface was barely ruffled, like a silk robe tossed on the bed.  Men standing in canoes wielded their long oars silently without a splash to reveal them.  Jala sat on shore with her camera poised, waiting for the boats and the men to glide into positions.  She didn't want to show herself, didn't want to disturb them by asking them to pose.  The sky was nearly the same pale blue as the sea, making it look as though the men in their boats had come from another dimension.  The sun shifted and the boats were suddenly floating on air as the water disappeared when the sun's angle changed.

Not what I was hoping for, but adequate.  Stay cool today, for one more day.  I'll be dodging in and out of air conditioning as much as I can today.
--Barbara