False Fall

So, the heat wave finally broke this weekend. Is that the end of the triple-digit weather here? I would sure like to hope so, but being a pessimist by nature I think not. Maybe I am a closet optimist though, as I’ve already begun looking forward to a Friday evening by the fire pit. That thing has sat in disuse for several months now, it’s just not too appealing when it’s 85 degrees at 7:00 in the evening. Guess we’ll see. According to the forecast we’re in for quite a treat this week, but it’s been wrong before.

I feel like, for the most part, we made fairly good use of the weekend. Friday night was sort of a non-event, as it was still miserably, intolerably hot. We ventured up to our neighborhood haunt, hung out for a few hours, and scurried back home to the a/c. Bones has a/c, of course, but it kind of struggles keeping up in this heat. Overall, though, I do believe the place as a whole is growing on us. We are going to try and go there once or twice a week for some undefined period of time and see how it goes. It ain’t no Brooksider, and definitely a far cry from the Bier Station, but it does have it’s appeal. At the end of the day, it’s pretty much the only option for entertainment within a 10 mile radius, so let’s hope for the best.

Saturday turned into a quite unexpectedly good day. I had the rather ill-advised idea to purchase tickets to the El Dorado Hills Brewfest some time ago, and the event finally came Saturday. I ain’t going to lie, I dreaded it all last week. The weather has been absolutely insane, 110+ every day. I actually saw 117 one afternoon at our house. Uhhhh, no thank you. Then, about mid-week, a large wild fire broke out near us and the air has been full of choking smoke. I thought they would cancel it due to the smoke, I kept anxiously checking my phone all night Friday. Well, Saturday came around, and all the stars aligned. For the event organizers anyway, not for me. The weather finally broke, and a favorable wind temporarily cleared the smoke, leaving me to dread my future for another whole day. Know what? I just don’t like El Dorado Hills. Don’t like the people, don’t like the town, don’t like the drive… I do not like EDH, Sam-I-Am. As it turned out, I had quite the enjoyable evening. We kicked off the afternoon over at a friend’s house, celebrating his birthday. Talked to a few people I hadn’t seen in a while. We hung out a few hours, then the whole group headed over to the brewfest, which was just a short walk from his house. It was a well-done event; They didn’t oversell the tickets so it wasn’t too crowded, the weather was a very welcome surprise, and they had several good food trucks. OK, there was that brief moment when I almost hit the DJ over the head with a chair, but we all have those. Geez buddy, find a new hobby, you are terrible at that one. Then, in what I believe was key to the success of the event, I called it a day. Went back to my buddy’s house, enjoyed the awesome nacho bar he had out, and took my happy self back up the hill. I cannot lie, I’m already looking forward to next year.

Sunday was, of course, the first day of NFL football. After no small amount of finagling, we were able to get the Chiefs game on, so that was fun to watch. The rest of the games, not so much, but it was good just to have the season back underway. Go Chiefs!

Labor Day ’22

Well, I will file that one under, “Take the bad with the good.” The good news was, we got out in the motorhome for a nice long weekend in nearby Coloma. The bad news, it was the hottest weekend of the year. As in, hottest by far. I had a great time all the same though, it was quite relaxing. Fine line between relaxing and boring, but I’m gonna go with it. For the most part, we stayed in the motorhome with the dogs, blasting the a/c and trying not to move. We were pretty darn successful at it too. We did spend a fair amount of time on the river. The water comes down from the snow melt in the mountains, and it is absolutely freezing. No matter that it was 115 degrees outside, jump in the river and it will take your breath away. Felt great! Now we are in for a full week of this heat, and then (hopefully) we’re in the clear. We’ll see how trustworthy the forecast is…

Here Goes Nuthin’

Well I suppose it’s time to make at least a weak effort towards typing some content in here. Problem is, I haven’t really done anything. Donette just returned from a 3 week (!!) stay in KC, which left me mostly sitting at home watching our anxiety-plagued puppies. They do ok IF (and that is a very important if) you walk around and make sure anything semi-destructible is removed from reach. This includes throw pillows, shoes, sunglasses, ear phones… anything that can be grabbed. They are only 5 years old though, maybe they will grow out of this phase. (How’s that for optimism.) I also watched an extra pup for the neighbors while they went out of town. This little girl is about six months, and she proved a bit of a challenge. Not too much, but she definitely has some puppy tendencies. Quinn had a bang-up time playing with her though. Now Nacho is a different story… Heck, she barely tolerates Quinn. There were a few good scraps, but with each of them weighing in around 12 pounds I didn’t have to worry about anybody getting hurt.

Other than a few trips to the office and an emergency voyage to the grocery store, I can’t think that I really left the house the whole time. I am definitely ready for our upcoming camping trip this coming weekend, get out of here for a bit. The bad news there is (and there is always bad news…) the forecast is back in the triple digits starting Saturday. Hmmm. We can make a game time decision when the time gets closer.