Hiding from the heat

I am hiding from the heat. 
I will take a warm day over a cold one anytime. 
This week I am hiding from it, 110 is not warm it is brutal. 

The AC quit working at work today.  The City's side had working AC, the Police side did not.  Thank goodness for someone's (thank you boss man) foresight to add independent heat and AC in dispatch. AND thank goodness my office is a pass through to the dispatch office.  We put a fan in the connecting door way and tah-dah, cool air in my office.  We had word that if it got too hot in our office we would be sent home. My poor co-worker was sure hoping but it didn't go his way.  The repairman showed up by mid-afternoon and got it all fixed.  Good thing since it is supposed to be 110 or higher all the rest of the week. 

My tomatoes did not make it.  My bell peppers are still hanging in there.  BUT all the clay dirt around the foundation of my house is shrinking.  Have you ever had to water your foundation?  It has been weeks since the grass has had to be mowed.  It has pretty much turned brown and I don't want to spend a small fortune watering it all.  It is still green all around the foundation. 

The house mouse did not make it.  Him and two of his buddies have nibbled their last bite of cheese.  It seems to be a common problem.  I guess they are trying to find a cool place too.  My sister had a house mouse problem.  I know she caught at least one.  Hmmm, I forgot to ask her if she ever caught any more.  There are mice at work too.  There are mouse traps set all over the place.  I can't help but notice the one set behind the copier in the squad room.  For some reason it looks so out of place there.  I haven't seen any of them tripped yet.  Thankfully I have not seen any sign of little critters in my office yet.  Cleaning up mouse messes at home is enough to keep me busy. 

I sure wish it would rain.  Rain for at least, oh..... two or three days.  That should help green things back up.  Too late for most of the corn and grain crops.  Now "they" are all saying that the price of groceries is going to go up.  Again.  On our last drive to MO all the fields had dead, dying or stunted crops.  I noticed that most of the ponds are also getting very low.  The prediction is that the price of beef is going to take a 30 percent price hike.  Ouch!  Both of us work for the "government", me with the city and the hubby with the county.  Neither of us have had a pay raise in years.  The price of our benefits have gone up but we do both still have our jobs.  At some point something will have to give.  It is strange to think that there might be a day when I can't afford a hamburger. 

I did get some nice shots of the sunset on our last trip to MO.  All the pretty stuff was behind me so I used the mirror and the window to catch the reflections.

I love seeing a good sunset or sunrise but some rain clouds would be a nice change!

I may have to rethink my view on cold weather.

Nahhhhh......  I still can't stand the cold.

Happy Birthday

Today is Grams 91st birthday. 

Yesterday there was a party at her house to celebrate it. 

It is too hot to spend any time out grilling so we had a pizza party for her. 

Grams likes pizza! 

There were a few presents for her to open and lots of Pizza to eat.

Yep, that is a can of Bud in front of her.  Beer goes good with Pizza.  It has to be Bud too.  Not Bud light, not Coors or any other type of beer.  It has to be Bud in the can, no bottles for Grams.  She did have to get up and pour it in a glass.  She said she just can't drink it out of the can.  I wonder if I poured it from a bottle in to a glass if she would be able to tell the difference? 

I think I will leave well enough alone and not push my luck. 

Her memory is so much worse.  She has a hard time remembering names and who people are.  But she really seemed to enjoy having company.  Her and Gramps were very social and usually had a group of friends at their house most weekends.  I don't think that there are very many of their friends left. Alzheimer's or Dementia, what ever name you call it by, it is a sad thing.  All the things she was so good at and enjoyed doing are lost to her now.  She used to love to make cookies.  There were usually two or three types of cookies in the cookie jars.  She made crabapple jelly from the tree in her front yard.  That tart jelly made some of the best jelly filled sugar cookies.  Hmmmmm, Always one of my favorites.  A close second was snickerdoodle cookies. YUM!  I never was any good at making either of those.  I do have her recipe for peanut butter cookies. 

 It would be nice if it was cool enough to turn the oven on, that will have to wait until fall.  One Hundred plus is just too hot to do any baking! 

I think she had a nice time. 

House Mouse

I have a mouse in my house.  The trap has been set forever and "he" ain't takin the bait.  So today I pulled everything out from under the cabinet.  I have piled all of it on top of my table and on top of the counter.  There are boxes of crackers, Pioneer mix, syrup, flour, sugar, hot cocoa, tea bags, cornmeal and oatmeal stacked up.  Now the trap is set under the cabinet. I don't want to put anything away yet.  I really do want to get rid of this pesky little varmit! 
So while trying to figure all of this out I saw a post on my lil Sister's fb.  She also has a mouse in her house.  From the comment about her doing a scaredy dance I assume that she has seen her mouse.  I haven't spotted mine yet.  I have heard it scampering around, *yuck*, and I have seen the evidence, uhhh....*double yuck*!  That is what has motivated me to empty out my cabinets.  Finding mouse turds on stuff that is supposed to be clean REALLY bothers me! 
 I keep waiting to hear the snap of the trap.  I hate killing things and it isn't easy for me to set a trap knowing, that if it works, I have killed something.    That means I also dread hearing the snap of the trap.  I can kill a bug without it bothering me but that is all. 
I can't empty the trap once it has "snapped". 
Nope.  No way.  No can do.  
Ain't happening. 
It is just not possible.
Now why does just the thought of seeing a dead mouse, that has been causing so many problems, give me the heebie jeebies? 
I can tell you if that dumb thing shows itself to me I will be doing a scaredy dance too!  I am lucky, my doggie won't laugh at me like my lil Sister's do her.  Shy baby loves her momma and knows who gives her the good stuff.  She knows I am the boss.  Shy baby knows who will lock her outside if she does laugh at me! 
My lil Sister has just posted that she just heard her trap snap.  She also has to wait for her "Prince Charming" to empty the trap.  I don't think she has looked to see if the "snap" was a hit or a miss. 
We are so much alike you would think we were sisters or something! 

FUN!

We spent the weekend in Missouri.  It was a fun trip.  Rob and Carrie took us to Silver Dollar City with Cohen (aka Mr. Man) and Tyler.  I was only able to get a few pictures of them riding rides......

Here is Rob and Cohen on the frogs. 

BT, Carrie and Tyler on the log ride.....

Yep, they got wet! 

Here is Rob and Tyler on the giant swing.  That was a cool ride!

It was a fun day with lots of walking AND waiting in line.  We all forgot a very important rule about riding rides at a theme park......  Get there early and do all the rides first thing.  It didn't get really crowded until after 12:00.  The lines were really long after that.  Our last ride was the train and the wait was not easy on the youngest member of our group.  Mr. Man has been cutting teeth and did not sleep well the night before.  Of course that means his mom and dad didn't get to sleep well either. 

Once on the train he had enough.  He was tired, cranky and his teeth hurt.  It is always an adventure to be stuck on a ride with a kid that is past ready for a nap!  But we all lived through it.  His mom and dad did mention a few times that they were thinking about giving Mr. Man to us for the rest of the summer.  I need to look around and see what kind of babysitters are available....... 

I got a chance to take pictures of everybody after church today.  I need to find deeper shade for Rob and Mr. Man.  Their eyes are so light sensitive that they both end up squinting.

 

There had to be one bunny ear picture.  There just had to be.

Maybe........

I went to visit my oldest girl last week.  It was a very relaxing visit.  We didn't get in a hurry to do anything.  We talked and talked.  Then we cooked and talked some more.  She taught me how to make beer batter.  Yum!  Sure made for some good fried zucchini. 



I miss her.  I don't see her near enough.  She is thinking of moving closer to home next year.  I get a bit giddy every time I think about it.  My heart likes having all my "chicks" close to me. 
Now if I can figure out how to get the group in MO to move here..........

The 4th

Since the 4th of July came in the middle of  the week this year I was able to make a very long weekend out of it.  With Wednesday and Friday off I didn't see any point in going to work on Thursday.  So I burned 10 hours of vacation and ended up with 5 days off. 
I love bargains and using my vacation time in such a way is a bargain!
We spent the whole day doing things. 
I needed to practice with my new camera AND I have a new lens to get used to. 
We headed to Claremore first then to Oologah.
Our firtst stop was at Will Rogers birthplace.  It is such a beautiful house and I love the barn.

The view of Lake Oologah is wonderful.  The original location of the home was flooded when the dam was built so the whole place was moved.  It is a beautiful piece of property with a great view now.  The breeze coming in from over the water felt wonderful. There is a caretaker that lives on the property and takes care of the animals.

  It was a surprise to see peacocks inside the barn.

There is still an outhouse on the property.

  I did not open the door to see if it was still being used.  

Next we headed to the lake.  We didn't want to spend the whole day there, too hot for that.  Now if we had a boat.......  but, we don't.... so we just spent the morning checking out lake Oolagah. 

This did look like fun!  And much cooler than standing on the bank taking pictures. 

The beaches were crowded, the campsites were full and there were lots of fisherman out trying their luck.  I was fascinated by the color pattern on the walls below the dam.

Makes me wonder what is in the water that makes all those different colors? 

Even with all the people at the lake there were still areas that were pretty quite.  I liked this shallow area that had several small willows growing.  There was a little bit of shade from them and the breeze felt good.

We ended the day at Gram's house.  She was in a good mood and didn't seem too forgetful. 

It was a very nice 4th of July. 

Now I am off to visit Kita in Stillwater.  I have my bag packed and my camera charged.  : )~

See y'all in a few days.

At least it is less than 20

I usually dread Mondays.  Really dread them.  I never know what I will walk in and find on Monday mornings.  Sometimes it goes smooth but most of the time there are all kinds of "messes" to clean up.  Today wasn't so bad.  There was only one arrest all weekend.  Just one.  That just never happens.  I don't know where all the "bad guys" were....... but they were hiding good.  Then to make the day even better I was able to get last of the reports for June checked in.  It is only the 2nd day of the new month.  I have only sent out 1 email asking for all the missing reports.  I didn't have to pester a single Supervisor to help me.  This is the best the Officers have done since we started on the new software a year and a half ago.  I will be able to get my stat report done and turned in to the OSBI tomorrow.  It isn't due until the seventh but THIS time I will get it done early. 
That means that even if today was my Monday and tomorrow is my Friday I still have a good chance of meeting my deadlines.  I wonder if something will happen tomorrow to throw a kink in things.....
I sure hope not. 
I will not hold my breath and relax until I walk out the door.  Too many times some "emergency" will pop up and cause a "big fire" that will have to be fixed first. 
Why does work have to be such.........work?
I know I am lucky to have a good job.  It is still the best job that I have ever had.  AND I like the people that I work with.

Even so.......
I have already started my count down to retirement.  18 years, 3 months and 21 days, approximately......  I guess it depends on what the retirement age will be 18 years in the future.  But I can work off an approximate plan for now.

It is gonna be awhile.  *sigh*

That is a lot of Mondays to make it through.  *double sigh*

So far my retirement plans include:
A garden.  It will provide food and exercise.  Planting, tending, harvesting, and storing should keep me busy. 
Chickens.  I think I want to keep chickens in my backyard.  After I get them I might change my mind.  But I want to give it a try. 
Taking photos.  I don't know if I will ever make any money at it.  I do know I enjoy it.  It helps fill a creative need and I love having pictures of my friends and family. 
Grandkids and/or Great Grandkids.  I hope to have lots of them to spoil rotten. 
That is all I have thought of so far. 

I have time to work on things.  *triple sigh*
 
I had to trade my camera in for a new one this past weekend.  I bought the lens and body as a package deal and the only way for the warranty to work (for the broken lens) would be to give the whole thing back.  I did get a newer model body but the lens looks the same.  I took it out in the back yard to play with it a bit and wasn't able to dial in the focus like I wanted.  There is just enough difference to make me feel lost.  I need more practice.
There is a new little baby boy that I haven't had a chance to take pictures of yet.  His Mommy said that I can take pictures of him.  I hope I can schedule something later this week.  I will have some free time since I only have to work two days.