Second Sizzlin' Saturday of the Summer

It's true, two Saturdays so far this summer and two days over 100°. We are NOT fans of this heat! While we are semi-comfortable inside, it still takes a toll.

We did manage to sleep a bit better last night because we kept the a/c on again all night. The second shock comes when the utility bill arrives . . .

Don't you just love the expression . . . "but it's a dry heat" . . . okay, so it's not as miserable as some parts of the country where the humidity is as high as the temperature . . . but hot is hot as far as we are concerned.

We have plenty of eggs on hand and we have sidewalk, so there is a little saving there . . . we are just not going to leave the house very often until the mercury relaxes.

Gail and I celebrated her 77th last Sunday in typical recent fashion -- a quiet day -- but one that did have special events commemorating the day. A special breakfast, followed by the opening of gifts, followed by the naps, lunch, a birthday bath, more naps and finally a special dinner.

Gail is admiring one of her gifts -- A "Meural" wall hanging currently displaying a painting of Irises,
a favorite. The Meural has a library of hundreds of paintings that can be displayed at will.

I actually am amazed that I was able to hang this frame and get it to work relatively easily. I still need to do some "tweaking" so that we can fully utilize all the features more. We can even display framed family photos as well . . . what will they come up with next?

We both enjoy the display so far, each selection is displayed for 30 minutes and then there is a change and the display even adjusts the lighting depending on the room light and time of day. The part I have to get control of more is the app on the cell phone that remotely controls selections.

Our town -- Healdsburg -- has been enduring the construction of a round-a-bout for the last couple of years. The intersection always had been a pain to cross but even at the beginning of the process driving around it has been so improved.

And it is getting there. Soon all this construction mess will be "just a memory". The new entry to our city will be so enhanced -- why there was such a negative discussion I'm not sure -- but it is enjoyable to drive through that intersection, even now.

But I do have to say that this is just the opinion of someone who only drives in that area every other week or so . . . maybe others who drive it multiple times per day would feel differently.

One of Gail's other gifts was the puzzle seen off to the right.

Luckily, we both enjoy working on puzzles and so we have started this new one.

As usual, Gail insists that there is no way we can put this one together -- until she actually starts getting a few pieces at a time together.

We enjoy working on these "Liberty Puzzles" as they are all wood pieces and each puzzle contains some very unique shapes adding to the interest. And as usual, the details start emerging as we examine each piece -- we are about 10% completed and taking our time to finish.

And it is gratifying to see that more "cold cases" are being solved via DNA.

The future seems to be very bright for the use of DNA matching.  Some folks that for decades have felt that they are "home free" for whatever crimes that they may have committed are going to be in for a lot of surprises -- just like when law enforcement discovered the value of fingerprinting.

So, what is on our nightstand
these days -- well, a ton of books, but the one that we are reading at bedtime these nights is:

We never really knew much about Debbie Reynolds and her two children, Carrie & Todd. Now we are reading the book co-written by Todd about his mother and his sister.

We are amazed at how their lives unfolded. We had no idea of the trials and tribulations that went on with their family.

The public image of people obscures so much of what "really" goes on in their everyday lives and it is often only after they are gone that you uncover some of the stories. And this is the case with this book -- of course, Todd Fisher is the only one left of the three.

So now our dilemma is "how do we celebrate the 4th" as it falls on Wednesday.

We are so used to "weekend" holidays -- do we celebrate today and tomorrow and then avoid the fireworks on Wednesday, or do we enjoy the fireworks on Wednesday and then celebrate next Saturday and Sunday . . .

Thank goodness we are flexible and so will just "take the whole week"  and celebrate the 4th . . . there are others who will do the same, I'm sure.

We do know though that there better not be any fireworks in our region other than the official displays -- we are in "red-flag" times.

That is a bit of our week -- Happy Fourth! See you all, "in a few" ! 👨👩