Monday Moanings - July 25, 2016

Life Under the Dome

No, not the the Stephen King sci-fi novel
     nor the spin off  TV series,
           but close, really close...










Oh wait -that might just be the air quality outside my door...

Sometime early in July, probably while we all were sleeping, a massive lid got plunked over a huge swath of North America.

We're sweltering in recycled hot air with little rain (yes there were some storms last night, but no relief from the heat) under a heat dome. Think of it as the flip side of the Polar Vortex.

So what's life like under the heat dome?
Well, it's hot. It's dry.
But life goes on.

I spend much of the day shuttered inside the house, blinds drawn to keep out the sun. I do my best to ignore the pulses of claustrophobia that try to con me into letting the light in the windows. A trip to the big box stores or the mall is good for relief, but not nearly so much fun as it was when I had kids in tow. In fact this time I was taken aback by the profoundly kid-unfriendly display just inside the doors of the local department store.

What a downer! It's still July! Not even the halfway point of the school holidays. Oh well I suppose the retail beat must go on. The snowsuits appeared at Costco® weeks ago and let there be no doubt, - it's way more cool to try on winter gear under the dome than to pick up school tools. Sheesh!

It's also way more cool to service the snow blower under the dome. At least that's what my love must have thought on weekend when he pulled the behemoth out the shed. Why else would he have delayed the end of season service from April until now?

But the #1 cool thing to do under the dome is BBQ!

Accompanied by appropriate libations of course!
And if this isn't enough cool for you, how about this:

http://www.xmasclock.com/

Don't worry...be happy.

©2016 April Hoeller

Thursday, or Thereabouts - July 21, 2016

Oh, the weather outside is frightful

But the A/C is so delightful.

And since we've no place to go,

Be it so, be it so, be it so...

As has been stated here many times in the past, I'm not a fan of hot weather. The 3-H's - hazy, hot and humid are not on my Christmas card list - maybe they should be?? I do know that there are folks out there for whom the ideal summer is an endless parade of sultry days where air temperatures soar past 30°C. To you hot bodies, I apologise for this blast of cold air.

When our children were young, a string of hot days brought challenges. Yes we had air conditioning in the house but after about three days of indoor life, the blanket forts, videos, and crafts lost their appeal and cabin fever soon raised my indoor temperature beyond tolerable. On those days, we made good an escape. If the budget permitted I'd take them to freeze in a movie theatre. There was something fun about bundling up to sit in a theatre when outside a t-shirt was too warm. There were giggles galore along with occasional complaints about cold noses.

 
Most often, we headed to the cool Mall. Again out came the jackets. I had rules of course - no fighting, or screaming. Violations were punishable by immediate departure for all. That only happened once. For the most part these excursions were cheap entertainment - there was always something new to see - and mmmarvellous mmmuffins® (as the shop was known back then), was always good for a snack. The biggest, most exciting discussion was about what muffins to take home for Daddy.

The mall outing always included some small toy, craft, colouring book and maybe even brand new crayons or markers from Lewiscraft (no longer a retailer).  And sometimes there was even lunch out in the food court. Then with muffins and nick knacks and smiles we headed home, where there were homemade popsicles, lemonade and rest before supper. Then it was off to the baseball diamond or soccer pitch, and sometimes both depending on which child was playing when.

Those were the days!

The best kind of 3-H days - Happy, Healthy, Home 

©2016 April Hoeller