It’s been an uncomfortably-warm night in this house so about an hour ago (around 3:30 a.m.) I got up and opened up a couple windows, including the big bedroom window right next to my bed. That is helping already to cool the house off from that 80-degree mark it’s been holding nearly all night long. Not a good sleeping temp.
I’ve also still been coughing at night and sleeping only fitfully, I was tossing and turning and kicking, only half-asleep w/a headache and itchy mosquito bites, before getting up to open those windows; then I realized I felt hungry so I ate 2 cheese slices; and now I am wide awake. It’s supposed to be a little cooler today, but not a lot.
Morning! Pretty birds sitting in the trees up there!
The surprise storm came in and cooled off our temps. Not too much rain from the storm but the sky was dark and foreboding.
Dj are you ever concerned sleeping with windows open? That something or someone could come in? It always gives me pause when I here of someone keeping windows open at night or even during the day when they are gone from home.
It’s hard to believe, but a little south of Atlanta this a.m. it was 61 degrees. It was around 65 degrees here. It feels so pleasant out! Is it late July? And low humidity, also. It is Christmas in July.
Janice @ 8:15. Christmas is five months away.
I see on FoxNews that Omar (>) thinks white men are the bane of the nation.
I guess she wants to do something about that.
Chas, some people want to keep people divided and stirred up with negativity. She is an excellent pot stirrer and seems to have a captive audience. Divide and conquer has been a strategy since the Garden of Eden. If Satan had approached Adam instead of Eve perhaps Adam would have been strong enough to say no to the sin. But it was all included in God’s plan just as the nonsense today is allowed to be part of His grand plans. Thankful daily to know the Victor!
Peter, from last night: a crack all across the room isn’t necessarily problematic. We had that when we were buying this condo and the carpet had been torn up; the professionals who saw it said it wasn’t a problem. (You know from patios and sidewalks how readily concrete cracks.)
I worry a little bit about open windows overnight and will usually only open the one next to my bed (because I am more likely to hear someone close by, as are the dogs, from there). Last night was so hot and by the time I opened everything up it was close to “morning” anyway, when a few folks in the neighborhood were getting up for early work shifts. Plus my neighbors on the one side were up also, I could see their TV going and their truck was in and out of the driveway at least once during that time between 3:30 and 5 or so). I also sat up reading a while, didn’t drop off again until around 5 a.m.
But short answer, yes and no 🙂 I know there’s always that risk. My mom always slept with her bedroom window open and I have gone through periods like that as well — nothing like fresh, cool air to sleep well. If someone came up onto the raised porch, the dogs would certainly let me know pretty quickly. And on these too-warm summer nights, it’s the only way I get much relief.
When I finally did get up today (for real), it was lightly raining, maybe that’ll help cool things off for the time being at least.
I think Kizzie looked up his old blog but I thought she said the last entry she could find was from something like 2015-16? So that doesn’t necessarily bode well (as he’d not been well last we heard). She said they’d stayed in email touch for a while but she hasn’t heard from him in some time now.
I learned a long time ago that people who are not going to respect your space are not going to respect your window. If they are breaking in, they are quite able to break the window. We learned that with our unlocked car in Germany. The thieves broke the window to steal the stereo whereas they could have just opened the door. Less trouble for them and for us if they had. But dogs are a deterrant.
My house is quite easily break-in-able (??), mumsee. I guess the added concern at night when one lives alone is someone meaning to harm you rather than steal your stuff. There have been periods in the past where open windows overnight in the summertime have led to those sprees in LA. so law enforcement will always tell people to keep windows closed overnight for their personal safety.
Cheryl – His name came up on the prayer thread sometime in the last few days. I said that the last I remember him mentioning here was that his daughter suspected he was sliding into some form of dementia. His growing belligerence seemed to point to that, too.
After commenting about that, I googled his name and the name of the island he lived on (in Washington state), and was surprised to see his name come up in rather recent comments he had made on a couple sites. He made a reference to Parkinson’s disease somewhere.
Then I looked up his old blog, and left a comment on his last entry, which was in 2015, just in case he might still get notifications. (No reply yet.)
One of the last things he had commented to me, either on here or on his blog, was that he couldn’t remember the password to his email. I don’t know if I still have his email address, but a little later I will check, and if I do, I’ll send him an email – hoping that he still uses that address, and that he has since figured out how to access it.
Recently, I read about a burglar who carried a crowbar, and would bash dogs over the head, often killing them. Another burglar I read about years ago said he carried dog treats, and that many dogs would befriend him for those treats, and let him do his “work”.
Brand new from Amazon delivery! They take a photo of the package by your door and send it to show the delivery is complete. Has anyone else gotten that before now? I am impressed!
My dogs would bark up a storm if someone tried to break in while I was gone — which either would or wouldn’t be a deterrent. Once they were inside, I have no doubt the dogs would be amenable to any treats they might have. But the barking alone often deters daytime burglars who like to slip in and out quickly and quietly to get what they can.
I think I met the younger Michelle today — the biologist/naturalist showing a photographer and I around the native ocean-front preserve where invasive snails have appeared in huge numbers recently, thanks to our earlier rains. She was delightful, her hair came to to her waist, she was tall and lanky, full of energy, and her mind and conversation fired at a breakneck speed. In the middle of a sentence her eyes would dart and she’d point and cry out enthusiastically “Gnat catcher!” We’d all turn and she’d immediately just take up where she left off in her sentence about snails. A few minutes later, “Gnat catcher!” and again we’d all turn. 🙂 We never saw anything, of course, but appreciated the heads up to spot a species that is native but had once dwindled in numbers (and now is making a comeback). I kept thinking who does she remind me of …
Finns are off to another visit to San Francisco, they’ll see Alcatraz and shop. Yesterday they went to Jelly Belly factory and then the outlet malls in Vacaville, “where it was nearly 40!”
(That’s 100 in Fahrenheit).
Tomorrow they’ll spend the day cooking a Finnish feast and they fly to LA Saturday afternoon. They’re going to Disneyland on Sunday and Universal Studios on Monday. I’m so old that all I can think of is how long the lines will be.
They fly home Tuesday. They’ve been lovely, but it will be nice to have our house back to ourselves and not have to go to the grocery store every day! LOL
In other international news, the Nica team wrapped up their clinic yesterday after seeing 2018 patients. They were tired. Today they’re visiting a school to hand out gifts to the students, seeing the maternity clinic and getting in a little sight-seeing. I think my daughter is going to shadow the local doctor in his clinic tonight. Tomorrow they head for two days of R&R before returning home on Sunday. An excellent trip.
NEWS
Atlanta Coyotes Are Here To Stay, And This Group Is Studying Their Impact
EMMA PEASLEE • JUL 24, 2019
Howling in backyards and posts on neighborhood message board, these have all become signs of Atlanta coyotes. And though they aren’t native to Georgia, the Department of Natural Resources says there is no getting rid of them now.
That’s why one Atlanta professor is working with partners across the country to study the effects of coyotes and urban wildlife in Atlanta. …
____________________________
Well, for whatever reason, I can’t like comments so I am issuing a blanket ‘L
Like’ from me.
DJ asked yesterday about the sedation of Miss Bosley. Personally, I am not sure it was needed. They do have quite a history on her since she has boarded there many times. She has been known to bite and will not tolerate a collar. She can be a pill, but also a sweetheart. Since this is a brand new vet, I think she was being cautious. She said she will note in her chart that the sedation made her nauseous. She had to have a dose of anti-nausea med, too, and she had the drools when we picked her up. She is still not very energetic, but I have enticed her to play with a string today. Since she has not exercised much lately, I will work her up to her stunts.
Trip Advisor just announced the #1 theme park in the world. Drum roll, please!
Universal’s Island Adventures
Now you know for this year’s Trivial Pursuit.
Annie is a nice cat. The vet pulled her out of her carrier (gently, carefully) and she even let him look at her teeth (which he marveled at). I think he did caution her “no claws” at one point.
Honestly, though, I’ve never seen her even hiss or bat a paw at Tess when she herds her into corners. She hunkers down, leaves the room (or crawls back into her carrier in the case of a vet visit) when she can. Avoidance. You don’t see me. That’s her go-to response.
I like to leave at least one window open at night. Since we are at over 5,000 feet, it tends to be cool.
Of course my window is basically a second story window.
And it has bars on it.
And I have an exterior deadbolt.
And a deadbolt on my front door.
And a deadbolt on my bedroom door.
DJ, I saw gnatcatchers this week! I’d never seen them before this spring (blue-gray gnatcatchers–which, by the way, build amazing nests) and saw them a lot this spring, and then not again until this week when I saw a couple of them chasing each other through the trees on one of the trails close to my home. Pretty, perky little birds, easier to see than most little birds because they call while they’re flying from place to place.
Mumsee, I joke that burglars must go door to door wiggling doorknobs, since we assume that locking doors keeps us safe. A good lock is probably some protection, but years and years ago I determined that I would use common sense and wisdom when it comes to safety issues, but leave it in God’s hands.
I once had a “security guy” try to sell me his product by telling me there had been several break-ins on the next block over that summer (I don’t know whether or not he was telling the truth). I responded to him politely, but internally I was smiling, because I was “on to him.” I realized he was trying to sell me fear so he could sell me his product. But having once lived on a street where there were several murders one block over one particular summer, I long ago put all of that in God’s hands. (Initially in that house I would wake up when I heard a noise, and sometimes creep around the house looking discreetly out of windows. One night I decided I couldn’t and wouldn’t live like that, I gave it to God, and I never took it back. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t experience fear in actual danger, but that I refuse to worry about theoretical danger.)
I’ve never been a fearful type when it comes to worrying about break-ins. And I, too, got some high-pressure sales pitches for electronic security systems when I first moved in here. I quickly realized I just didn’t want to be hassling with some coded keypad every time I came home or left.
(My neighbors to the one side do have a security system, along with outdoor cameras — but they were broken into a long time ago when their sons were small and she was home, she had to chase the guys out with the family’s gun; so I think that personal experience probably motivated those choices for them).
The neighbors on the other side of me are similar to me — back door open 3/4 of the time, windows open, etc. An apartment I shared with a roommate was broken into once ages ago, they just pushed the door right in; we both lost our high school class rings and a few other things (but we didn’t have much). It was unsettling but it didn’t seem to scar me for life.
I really think if someone wants into your house they’ll probably find a way.
When Amazon delivers a package we have seen them on camera taking a photo of the said package they left at the door. Living down a long drive in a neighborhood of homes dwelling on 2.5 -5 acre lots, we kind of watch out for “strangers” in the area. Amazon at one time had contractor delivery persons driving their own personal cars down our driveways….neighbors didn’t like that much (we didn’t like it either…seeing an unfamiliar car driving up to our home and a strange person coming up to the door…no identifying badge/sign) Amazon stopped that and now they have Amazon vans delivering in our area…smarter…and safer…lots of homeowners own guns and many aren’t trusting of strange persons coming up on their porches. We have cameras and an intercom…I open no door to a stranger out here….
Wandering Views 
Good morning everyone but Jo.
AJ is up early for a Thursday.
Good night Jo.
Nothing going on here.
That’s good
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Good morning! My life is crazy, but I finally caught up on the blog last night.
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It was interesting to see that Random is still alive and kicking.
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I’m joining the East Coasters here.
It’s been an uncomfortably-warm night in this house so about an hour ago (around 3:30 a.m.) I got up and opened up a couple windows, including the big bedroom window right next to my bed. That is helping already to cool the house off from that 80-degree mark it’s been holding nearly all night long. Not a good sleeping temp.
I’ve also still been coughing at night and sleeping only fitfully, I was tossing and turning and kicking, only half-asleep w/a headache and itchy mosquito bites, before getting up to open those windows; then I realized I felt hungry so I ate 2 cheese slices; and now I am wide awake. It’s supposed to be a little cooler today, but not a lot.
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The East Coasters and rkessler. I think your 4-corners area is being blamed for our heat spell, BTW. You can have it back now, we’re over it.
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Go buy you some nature’s way Umka, Donna. It will help with the cough.
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Wow, what a lot of different time zones we are all on. 10pm here and time for some rest. Friday morning is market day so I have to get up extra early.
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I was surprised and kinda worried Donna. You aren’t supposed to be aware of the world this time of day.
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It’s been hot here also, but clouds up in the afternoon.
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Morning! Pretty birds sitting in the trees up there!
The surprise storm came in and cooled off our temps. Not too much rain from the storm but the sky was dark and foreboding.
Dj are you ever concerned sleeping with windows open? That something or someone could come in? It always gives me pause when I here of someone keeping windows open at night or even during the day when they are gone from home.
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With two dogs in the house I think DJ has an alarm system in case of intruders.
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It’s hard to believe, but a little south of Atlanta this a.m. it was 61 degrees. It was around 65 degrees here. It feels so pleasant out! Is it late July? And low humidity, also. It is Christmas in July.
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Lovely pair of egrets (?) In the header. Maybe love birds?
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Janice @ 8:15. Christmas is five months away.
I see on FoxNews that Omar (>) thinks white men are the bane of the nation.
I guess she wants to do something about that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Chas, some people want to keep people divided and stirred up with negativity. She is an excellent pot stirrer and seems to have a captive audience. Divide and conquer has been a strategy since the Garden of Eden. If Satan had approached Adam instead of Eve perhaps Adam would have been strong enough to say no to the sin. But it was all included in God’s plan just as the nonsense today is allowed to be part of His grand plans. Thankful daily to know the Victor!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Peter, from last night: a crack all across the room isn’t necessarily problematic. We had that when we were buying this condo and the carpet had been torn up; the professionals who saw it said it wasn’t a problem. (You know from patios and sidewalks how readily concrete cracks.)
Where did Random Name show up? I missed him.
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I worry a little bit about open windows overnight and will usually only open the one next to my bed (because I am more likely to hear someone close by, as are the dogs, from there). Last night was so hot and by the time I opened everything up it was close to “morning” anyway, when a few folks in the neighborhood were getting up for early work shifts. Plus my neighbors on the one side were up also, I could see their TV going and their truck was in and out of the driveway at least once during that time between 3:30 and 5 or so). I also sat up reading a while, didn’t drop off again until around 5 a.m.
But short answer, yes and no 🙂 I know there’s always that risk. My mom always slept with her bedroom window open and I have gone through periods like that as well — nothing like fresh, cool air to sleep well. If someone came up onto the raised porch, the dogs would certainly let me know pretty quickly. And on these too-warm summer nights, it’s the only way I get much relief.
When I finally did get up today (for real), it was lightly raining, maybe that’ll help cool things off for the time being at least.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I think Kizzie looked up his old blog but I thought she said the last entry she could find was from something like 2015-16? So that doesn’t necessarily bode well (as he’d not been well last we heard). She said they’d stayed in email touch for a while but she hasn’t heard from him in some time now.
LikeLike
I learned a long time ago that people who are not going to respect your space are not going to respect your window. If they are breaking in, they are quite able to break the window. We learned that with our unlocked car in Germany. The thieves broke the window to steal the stereo whereas they could have just opened the door. Less trouble for them and for us if they had. But dogs are a deterrant.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My house is quite easily break-in-able (??), mumsee. I guess the added concern at night when one lives alone is someone meaning to harm you rather than steal your stuff. There have been periods in the past where open windows overnight in the summertime have led to those sprees in LA. so law enforcement will always tell people to keep windows closed overnight for their personal safety.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cheryl – His name came up on the prayer thread sometime in the last few days. I said that the last I remember him mentioning here was that his daughter suspected he was sliding into some form of dementia. His growing belligerence seemed to point to that, too.
After commenting about that, I googled his name and the name of the island he lived on (in Washington state), and was surprised to see his name come up in rather recent comments he had made on a couple sites. He made a reference to Parkinson’s disease somewhere.
Then I looked up his old blog, and left a comment on his last entry, which was in 2015, just in case he might still get notifications. (No reply yet.)
One of the last things he had commented to me, either on here or on his blog, was that he couldn’t remember the password to his email. I don’t know if I still have his email address, but a little later I will check, and if I do, I’ll send him an email – hoping that he still uses that address, and that he has since figured out how to access it.
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Recently, I read about a burglar who carried a crowbar, and would bash dogs over the head, often killing them. Another burglar I read about years ago said he carried dog treats, and that many dogs would befriend him for those treats, and let him do his “work”.
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What it comes down to is, we do what we can and have to trust God with our lives.
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Brand new from Amazon delivery! They take a photo of the package by your door and send it to show the delivery is complete. Has anyone else gotten that before now? I am impressed!
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I have not been to the Amazon in a year and a half and don’t plan to start so I will never know.
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My dogs would bark up a storm if someone tried to break in while I was gone — which either would or wouldn’t be a deterrent. Once they were inside, I have no doubt the dogs would be amenable to any treats they might have. But the barking alone often deters daytime burglars who like to slip in and out quickly and quietly to get what they can.
I think I met the younger Michelle today — the biologist/naturalist showing a photographer and I around the native ocean-front preserve where invasive snails have appeared in huge numbers recently, thanks to our earlier rains. She was delightful, her hair came to to her waist, she was tall and lanky, full of energy, and her mind and conversation fired at a breakneck speed. In the middle of a sentence her eyes would dart and she’d point and cry out enthusiastically “Gnat catcher!” We’d all turn and she’d immediately just take up where she left off in her sentence about snails. A few minutes later, “Gnat catcher!” and again we’d all turn. 🙂 We never saw anything, of course, but appreciated the heads up to spot a species that is native but had once dwindled in numbers (and now is making a comeback). I kept thinking who does she remind me of …
It’s very humid out today. 😦
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Chas, yes, that is a new feature (the porch photos of your package).
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Janice, I meant.
You don’t look at all like Burt Reynolds.
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Or the guy Chas looks like, whats-his-name.
Burt Reynolds, he was my era.
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LOL. Uh, yeah, that does sound like me, though in a different subject!
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🙂
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Finns are off to another visit to San Francisco, they’ll see Alcatraz and shop. Yesterday they went to Jelly Belly factory and then the outlet malls in Vacaville, “where it was nearly 40!”
(That’s 100 in Fahrenheit).
Tomorrow they’ll spend the day cooking a Finnish feast and they fly to LA Saturday afternoon. They’re going to Disneyland on Sunday and Universal Studios on Monday. I’m so old that all I can think of is how long the lines will be.
They fly home Tuesday. They’ve been lovely, but it will be nice to have our house back to ourselves and not have to go to the grocery store every day! LOL
In other international news, the Nica team wrapped up their clinic yesterday after seeing 2018 patients. They were tired. Today they’re visiting a school to hand out gifts to the students, seeing the maternity clinic and getting in a little sight-seeing. I think my daughter is going to shadow the local doctor in his clinic tonight. Tomorrow they head for two days of R&R before returning home on Sunday. An excellent trip.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Burt Lancaster.
Whatever.
See how Chas always dominates the thread, even when he’s not here?
LikeLiked by 2 people
For Janice:
https://www.wabe.org/atlanta-coyotes-are-here-to-stay-and-this-group-is-studying-their-impact/
________________________
NEWS
Atlanta Coyotes Are Here To Stay, And This Group Is Studying Their Impact
EMMA PEASLEE • JUL 24, 2019
Howling in backyards and posts on neighborhood message board, these have all become signs of Atlanta coyotes. And though they aren’t native to Georgia, the Department of Natural Resources says there is no getting rid of them now.
That’s why one Atlanta professor is working with partners across the country to study the effects of coyotes and urban wildlife in Atlanta. …
____________________________
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Chas dominates the thread like the Russians dominated the 2016 election.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Well, for whatever reason, I can’t like comments so I am issuing a blanket ‘L
Like’ from me.
DJ asked yesterday about the sedation of Miss Bosley. Personally, I am not sure it was needed. They do have quite a history on her since she has boarded there many times. She has been known to bite and will not tolerate a collar. She can be a pill, but also a sweetheart. Since this is a brand new vet, I think she was being cautious. She said she will note in her chart that the sedation made her nauseous. She had to have a dose of anti-nausea med, too, and she had the drools when we picked her up. She is still not very energetic, but I have enticed her to play with a string today. Since she has not exercised much lately, I will work her up to her stunts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Trip Advisor just announced the #1 theme park in the world. Drum roll, please!
Universal’s Island Adventures
Now you know for this year’s Trivial Pursuit.
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Oops!
Islands of Adventure
LikeLiked by 1 person
Annie is a nice cat. The vet pulled her out of her carrier (gently, carefully) and she even let him look at her teeth (which he marveled at). I think he did caution her “no claws” at one point.
Honestly, though, I’ve never seen her even hiss or bat a paw at Tess when she herds her into corners. She hunkers down, leaves the room (or crawls back into her carrier in the case of a vet visit) when she can. Avoidance. You don’t see me. That’s her go-to response.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I like to leave at least one window open at night. Since we are at over 5,000 feet, it tends to be cool.
Of course my window is basically a second story window.
And it has bars on it.
And I have an exterior deadbolt.
And a deadbolt on my front door.
And a deadbolt on my bedroom door.
So, yeah, I like to leave a window open!
LikeLiked by 4 people
I love colorized historic photos!
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/07/16/romanov-costume-ball-1903/
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DJ, I saw gnatcatchers this week! I’d never seen them before this spring (blue-gray gnatcatchers–which, by the way, build amazing nests) and saw them a lot this spring, and then not again until this week when I saw a couple of them chasing each other through the trees on one of the trails close to my home. Pretty, perky little birds, easier to see than most little birds because they call while they’re flying from place to place.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mumsee, I joke that burglars must go door to door wiggling doorknobs, since we assume that locking doors keeps us safe. A good lock is probably some protection, but years and years ago I determined that I would use common sense and wisdom when it comes to safety issues, but leave it in God’s hands.
I once had a “security guy” try to sell me his product by telling me there had been several break-ins on the next block over that summer (I don’t know whether or not he was telling the truth). I responded to him politely, but internally I was smiling, because I was “on to him.” I realized he was trying to sell me fear so he could sell me his product. But having once lived on a street where there were several murders one block over one particular summer, I long ago put all of that in God’s hands. (Initially in that house I would wake up when I heard a noise, and sometimes creep around the house looking discreetly out of windows. One night I decided I couldn’t and wouldn’t live like that, I gave it to God, and I never took it back. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t experience fear in actual danger, but that I refuse to worry about theoretical danger.)
LikeLiked by 2 people
Gnatcatcher! 🙂
I’ve never been a fearful type when it comes to worrying about break-ins. And I, too, got some high-pressure sales pitches for electronic security systems when I first moved in here. I quickly realized I just didn’t want to be hassling with some coded keypad every time I came home or left.
(My neighbors to the one side do have a security system, along with outdoor cameras — but they were broken into a long time ago when their sons were small and she was home, she had to chase the guys out with the family’s gun; so I think that personal experience probably motivated those choices for them).
The neighbors on the other side of me are similar to me — back door open 3/4 of the time, windows open, etc. An apartment I shared with a roommate was broken into once ages ago, they just pushed the door right in; we both lost our high school class rings and a few other things (but we didn’t have much). It was unsettling but it didn’t seem to scar me for life.
I really think if someone wants into your house they’ll probably find a way.
LikeLike
When Amazon delivers a package we have seen them on camera taking a photo of the said package they left at the door. Living down a long drive in a neighborhood of homes dwelling on 2.5 -5 acre lots, we kind of watch out for “strangers” in the area. Amazon at one time had contractor delivery persons driving their own personal cars down our driveways….neighbors didn’t like that much (we didn’t like it either…seeing an unfamiliar car driving up to our home and a strange person coming up to the door…no identifying badge/sign) Amazon stopped that and now they have Amazon vans delivering in our area…smarter…and safer…lots of homeowners own guns and many aren’t trusting of strange persons coming up on their porches. We have cameras and an intercom…I open no door to a stranger out here….
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Cheryl (8:09) I forgot to mention our guide also re-created the gnatcatcher calls for us.
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