Heat Wave Makes Mowing Tough

This week, the news said it hit over 100 degrees locally. Today I had to work out in the yard. I knew I was in trouble when I was getting too hot and tired just cutting the front lawn. I wanted to quit. But I had to press on. Powered through the fatigue and pain.

I ended up cutting the whole lawn. Weed wacking was brief. I struggled to bring the grass clipping bags to the curb. Inside the house, it was cool. But internally, my body was hot. I made sure I had plenty of fluids.

Went upstairs to take a shower. I was struggling to get the shower done. Then I laid down in bed. I was breathing really hard. I just could not get cool. Momoko turned on the ceiling fan in the bedroom. I kept tossing my pillow around to cool my head. Eventually I caught my breath. Much later I cooled down.

What am I supposed to do? Maybe split up the front and back yards into two separate days of mowing like my friends? Or perhaps I should do a little bit every day to build up my endurance. Who knows? I don't want to just hire somebody to cut the grass when it is hot. This is my only real exercise.

New Gerbils This Summer

Kit Kat asked if it was time for us to buy new gerbils again. I questioned the kids. Seems their chores were not in order. I overlooked some of that when they were busy with school and work. But if they don't have time for chores, adding gerbils will only make it worse.

So Momoko documented the minimal set of weekly chores that must be done by Little Kat and Kit Kat. After a week of monitoring them, it seems they are back on track. Kit Kat went out to spend the weekend with her old college dorm mates. So it was up to Little Kat and Momoko to get the gerbils.

I was going out to eat with a friend for a late lunch. Momoko and Little Kat picked up three new gerbils (one for each of Momoko, Little Kat, and Kit Kat). They purchased a new plastic igloo to serve as the gerbil house. They also bought a new wheel.

These new gerbils are not too small. They seem comfortable with humans. Although they do get spooked by sudden noises or movements. At least two of them love and fight over the wheel. It is fun to put a large fence around the center of the living room and see them run around on the carpet.

Kit Kat's gerbil is the escape specialist. That bugger got free three times on the first day it came to our house. It will be a handful.

Recliner Chair Shopping

My recliner in the family room has some problems. When I try to lean back in it, I hear a wicked creaking sound. The recliner has lasted for a while. I originally bought two of them for $300 each during a super sale at a reputable furniture store. I guess it is time to replace them both.

Momoko and I set off on a recent holiday to go furniture shopping. I decided to start with a store I saw a circular ad for. It had the cheapest recliners. We had to go into a bad section of town to get to the store. I tried to use my car GPS to get there. It could not find the address.

So as I near the turn to get onto the store's road, I get in the wrong lane. We enter a shopping center with cheaper stores like Atlantic grocery. This shopping center parking lot was treacherous. Then we get on the right road but in the wrong direction. Finally we arrive at the store.

The store had no air conditioning. Just a lot of fans blowing. The sales staff was friendly. The recliner I saw had no assist in getting back into the upright position. Too hard to do that manually. They had a more expensive power recliner. But it went from upright to fully reclined - no in between, so no sale.

The sales consultant sent us to another discount furniture store. They did not have power recliners on display. I did sit in a nice loveseat which is part of a seat that includes a power recliner. The problem was that the cost for the recliner was about double what I want to pay.

Momoko and I took a break before driving to an upscale furniture store. We ate some burritos and chile con queso. Sat in about 15 power recliners at the upscale store. I only fell in love with one of them. The problem was that the cost was 4x what I wanted to pay.

Back at home I found my recliner problem had mysteriously gone away. So for now I am going to hold tight and look for sales. I will eventually need to break down and buy some new furniture. Just not today.

All Vacations Come to an End

Our grand vacation eventually had to come to an end. Grandma leaves for work at 7:15am local time. So we planned to wake up at 7:00am to say goodbye. I woke up at 6:00am, thinking it was still 5:00am local time. Oops. The iPhone displayed local time, not my own time zone. We saw grandma off to work.

Then we packed up the rental car and said our last goodbyes. Filled up the big Chevy Suburban SUV gas tank. It did not cost as much as I thought it would. Then I dropped Momoko and Little Kat with our luggage at departures. I took the rental back to the rental lot and took the bus to the airport. We checked in with ease.

For brunch we ate at a deli inside the airport. Little Kat opted for a sandwich with double meat, but could not finish the thing. What a waste. At least Momoko was paying. This was a full flight. Still, Little Kat decided to get a window seat by himself in another aisle. It came down to the last few passengers.

I had the window; Momoko had the aisle. Hercules comes down the plane along with a little old woman. Luckily the woman say between me and Momoko. The flight made record time. It even had to circle around over the bay/ocean while waiting for clearance to land. And land we did with a bang. Such a hard landing that the old lady beside me was praying up a storm.

Everyone was at work when we arrived home. So we took a cab ride home. It cost over $60 but was worth it. The cabbie was a wild drive who talked on his cell phone and read the paper while driving. I still tipped him because he got us home quickly and probably has a tough job overall. We were glad to see my bro and Kit Kat when they got home from work.