Is it hot out here, or what?!

Wow! Is it hot out there! To which you are to reply, "How hot is it?" Well, it's not exactly the heat, it's the humidity...you've probably heard that one before. Welcome to WV in the summer time. Pack up your lungs and get out your gills, you're gonna need 'em! And in this case that was the problem, along with mosquitoes the size of hummingbirds. I went out to tackle some projects that have been needing done. I got the porch flowers taken care of and the garbage to the curb. Then I picked up all the big branches out of the yard so Chris can mow tonight or tomorrow night. Then I decided to tackle the giant multiflora rose bush that is taking over the edge of the driveway and my favorite honeysuckle vine. So I set out with my little nippers. I like to chop away at big projects and this one was definately BIG.

I got into it and found that not only was there a giant multiflora rose inside my honeysuckle vine, but a wild honeysuckle bush, grapevine, blackberry bush and...poison ivy! Egad! To top that off the mosquitoes came out en force! So I am clipping and swatting and sweating in places that I didn't know could actually sweat-now there is another day's blog. I was doing a pretty good job, when I looked up and saw that rather than running around the yard the dog had actually started to paddle, and I swear I saw her float once or twice too. But I persisted. Then it happened, the final straw. Little flaps came out and blocked up my nose. My lungs ceased to function and little slits appeared on my sides and tiny fins. I was swimming in humidity.

I had swatted so many mosquitos that I couldn't tell the dead ones from the live ones on my legs. They don't bite me anywhere else, just on my legs. Well, I can't say that always is the case, one actually bit me on my butt one time. And I had tramped through the poison ivy at least ten times, so it was time to get cleaned up. I sure hope this is not the way the entire summer is going to be, or I won't get much else outside done. But if it is, I hope everyone knows how to swim and scuba dive, and be safe in the process!!

Let's talk fire alarms...

Today, I am wondering about fire alarms and just how the infernal things work. Everytime I make a pizza or bake Chris's bread I set the oven on 425 degrees. This is a hot oven, but normal for baking things like this. The fire alarm joins in with the beeper that tells me the oven is at the proper temperature. Now my Mother's first rule of cooking is that the fire alarm is not the signal that the food is done, but mine goes off when it is supposed to go in...

On Wed. I was baking and of course, the fire alarm is going off. It would not stop so I took it down and took it outside on the porch banister. That night when Chris came home he brought it in and said it wouldn't do much good for us out there. He knows how it works, so it was no surprise to him to find it out there. I put it back up and didn't think anything more about it.

On Thursday, I was boiling water to drink and make Kool-aid. Our city water has more nasty in it than a well in a village in the middle of a cholera outbreak in the 1300's. I was pouring the hot water into a pitcher to cool, and the pitcher started to overflow. I grabbed a kitchen towel and threw it on the counter to stop the water from running down on the laminate floor. Well, the edge of the towel fell across the stove and I didn't see it and it caught fire. I had turned around to grab some paper towels for the water too, and when I turned back around I grabbed the water pitcher and poured it on the fire. And the entire time the fire alarm remained completely SILENT. Not a peep...hmmmm. Now how does that work??