It's hot

Last summer wasn't so bad. In 2019, we had a very cool and rainy June, and the heat never really got awful in July and August. But now it's 2020. And because it's 2020, of course, the heat is awful. Nothing about this year is good!

I thought about getting a swamp cooler installed this year, but Rocket Boy didn't seem interested and I let the idea drop. Now he's back in St. Louis and oh, it's so hot in Colorado. In the 90s every day, and last night it only got down into the 70s or so, which is not low enough to cool off the house with a fan. Today it is currently 97. There's a chance of rain, which is good since rain has been scarce recently, and we've already had one very brief storm, around noon, but it was mainly hail. The garden didn't even get wet. Fortunately the hail ended quickly. Nothing like a good hailstorm to destroy everything you've got growing. I hope we'll have more rain later in the afternoon, but I don't know. I can see a lot of blue sky.

Anyway, it's hot. Not like Ridgecrest, though! I don't know if Ridgecrest actually got to 113 yesterday, but it was forecast to. Today it's only 109. Death Valley is supposed to be 123.

When we lived in Ridgecrest we had a swamp cooler.

Anyway, I'm nattering on about the weather because I don't really have anything else to say. The heat lays me low. It lays the boys low. To keep the house "cool," we spend the day sitting in the dark, staring at screens. Or at least they do. I stare at screens too, but I also attempt to do other things, like the dishes. It doesn't go well. Today so far (it's 2:30 pm) I have (1) emptied the dishwasher, (2) put away the towels that were in the dryer from some other day, (3) started a load of the kids' laundry, (4) fed the cat twice, and (5) done the daily Solitaire Challenge. Also I am (6) writing this blog post. There are about 15 other things on my to-do list, and some of them will get done, but most won't.

One thing that will get done, I'm almost certain, is (7) Lexia. Lexia is a program that helps kids improve their reading. Kid A uses it in school and has access to it over the summer, so I decided to buy the homeschool version for Kid B, since he hates to read and this will at least give him some practice. It's a little pricey ($175 for a year's license for one kid), but that's less than the cost of one week of day camp. Day camp is cancelled this year, so we're doing Lexia three times a week for 20 minutes. The kids complain, but 20 minutes is a pretty short time, all things considered.

What else? When Rocket Boy was here, we set up the front porch so that I can sit out there and read, and the kids have now set up chairs for themselves so that they can sit with me and bug me. But it's too hot! It doesn't get cool enough to sit out there until after 8 pm, at which point it starts to get dark. Yes, that is a box of old sewing patterns next to my chair on the blue table, and no, I don't really know why they're there. There's also a container of DEET-free bug spray, because mosquitoes love me, yes they do. Yes, Kid A parks his bike on the built-in bench at the end of the porch, so no one can sit there. Ergo, chairs. At the other end of the porch is my hummingbird feeder, and while I wouldn't say it's wildly popular, it does get visitors. No way to know if my babies are among them, but I like to think they are.

I haven't made use of most of my birthday presents yet -- except the cheesecake, lol -- haven't taken the sewing machine out of its box, haven't read any of the books, haven't used the Michael's or Starbucks gift cards, haven't made the puzzle. I did spend just a little of my Amazon gift card on some new Barbie clothes. Here are the Barbies and Kens (and the Justin Bieber doll, who hangs out with them), dressed more or less appropriately for the weather. The dolls on the lower shelf are more mature, so they're wearing pineapple picker outfits and would be wearing masks if I had gotten it together to make some. The dolls on the higher shelf are less mature, and so they're all headed for the beach, social distancing be damned. (Not that we have a beach, here in Colorado, but the Barbies and Kens live in an imaginary world where there is always a beach.)

I'll just say a few words about the current state of the nation: I'm getting scared again. A week ago when I posted, 130,000 people had died from the virus. Now, 135,000 people have died. Today, Los Angeles County has a 7-day average of 2651 new cases. Harris County in Texas (Houston) has 1253. Miami-Dade County has 2490. Maricopa County in Arizona (Phoenix) has 2550. Some of those are probably not serious cases, but in many places they still won't even test you unless you have symptoms. So most of those are probably really sick people.

I've been saying all along that I want the kids to go back to school, in person, in August, but now I'm starting to wonder -- is that a good idea? Boulder still has a very low rate of transmission, with the CU students mostly out of town, but what happens when they come back to town? The main point of in-person college, from the perspective of many undergraduates, is to hang out with friends and meet people. How can CU possibly keep the virus from spreading? And how can the Boulder Valley schools? If I get this, I am not likely to do well, given my weight. And then what do the twins do? I've started to look at my cupboards again, thinking about stockpiling. What should I have a good supply of that the twins can fix themselves? Oysters, crackers, and ramen ramen ramen. Popcorn. Cereal. Cheese.

I'm just not having a good feeling about how things are going, nationwide and worldwide. I guess that's where I'll leave it. It's too hot to think.