It's Been a While

I can't believe that so many days have gone by without posting! We did have the first heat wave of the year--it reminds us that we are not in charge of the weather. It is also miserable as my house isn't that removed from the outdoors--hard to heat in the winter, hard to cool in the summer. Still I am grateful that it provides a roof over my head, electricity and running water. Definitely better than the farmsteads my ancestors lived in, with outhouses no less. So I will give thanks.

Opened up my Facebook the other day to find big and not necessarily welcome changes at Cafepress. Wouldn't have known without my Facebook and if I hadn't logged in just then. ("What! Did I miss the announcement?", a quote from Special Agent Gibbs of NCIS comes to mind here.) I have spent more time than I have to spend this way reading the forums and figuring out how I will be impacted by this and what I should do.

I have really loved Cafepress. It was exciting and pleasing and fulfilling all at the same time to receive the first package with a made object, the mug with my Fred is Peace design, come out of the wrappings. Soon I graduated from being a customer with some private designs to being a shopkeeper. My name on an Internet page! More goodies with my designs--and slowly over several years, a minor amount of sales. For the most part the prices of custom-made work are too high for most people, and I have never found a niche market of customers who could afford these high-end, equally high-quality items.

Then this St Patrick's Day and Easter I had a nice uptick in sales. I was inspired to spend time on my designs again, adding new products that I had not included, which meant templates and descriptions and all of that. I have made a whole nice new section for Mother's Day and I think these things are pretty. They are not terribly commercial though, or of the present moment. ( I have little or no interest in pop culture.)

Now the company is changing its business model so that it looks as though most of the designers--who have been setting our own mark-ups--will lose income as the company standardizes its prices. I won't give up yet, but I will try to expand to another POD company, one that I have had a small presence on for two years. It will be one more very time-consuming and energy-consuming thing to do. I am very tired. This was not how I was planning or hoping to spend the Spring days.

So mixed with the gratitude for my essential blessings is a fairly stiff measure of discouragement right now. The challenge is to take what looks like a set-back and turn it around so that it becomes a success and something to be grateful for.

My Zazzle url is in the column to the right in the links. Please click on it. Thank you.

Excessive Heat Warning

Again the yellow band is flowing across the bottom of the television screen when I check the weather channel to see if it is time to start opening the house. That time is when the outside temperature is three degrees below the inside temperature and it has held steady for at least forty minutes or so. Right now it is perfectly splendid, a breeze is blowing that is visible in the swaying branches of trees. Increasingly, I give thanks for these trees.

I was hoping so much that we could get a few more weeks away from the longest day of the year before having to endure this again. Once we have lost an hour or so of daylight, my house is not so hot and cools down more quickly at night. Alas, it is not to be.

For the sake of the firefighters too, I was hoping that we would not have another excessive heat spell for a bit. The fire at Big Sur is so huge, so complicated and surging over such rugged terrain that they are not expecting to have it fully contained until the end of July. This means it will not be controlled until next month and it will probably be the fall rains that will finally put it out.

We could use a rain right now over all of the state. A real rain that would fall gently and steadily restoring moisture to parched land and trees. Not dry lightning which makes for more wild fires, but water. On the other hand would it just make the weeds grow to make more fuel in a few weeks? I don't know.

There is talk about a new tax of $12 to be paid for by all property owners. I think it would be more fair to tax those living in the areas that are at risk, but since I breathe the air, I will pay my tax without a protest.

Better management of water resources and forests is needed in this state. Fifty years of underbrush and dead trees should not be left to stack up to burn in a drought year. I am, of course, a city girl; born in a city, living in an urban megolopolis and having lived for six years in one of the country's biggest and grandest cities, I don't view wilderness in quite the same way, I suppose, as those who live near it.

Still, if I were living in the wilderness or close to it, I would want to be able to clear defensible space around my dwelling and outbuildings. As a taxpayer and a voter, I think it is time to call the National Park Service to accountability. It is time to temper environmentalism with stewardship and change some of our policies. The health cost of these fires as the air continues to be choked with ash and smoke hasn't been calculated. I can feel in my lungs and energy level that it is taking a toll on me and I am sure that I am not alone.

I am grateful that I do not live inland or in one of the areas of fires and that the longest day of the year has past. I will be grateful when next weekend comes around--I wish I could just hibernate and sleep until then.

Presents and Gratitude

Yesterday a friend dropped off two of the biggest pots I ever seen! They sit in my back patio just outside the screen door, green, new and pristine waiting for dirt and plants. My friend also dropped off four bags of great potting soil. She, who had already brought me plants for the side planter box and planted them, is unhappy with the way the tomato there is not growing. In the new pots the tomato and one of the zucchinis will prosper because they will have more sun. Yum,yum!

Last evening my young friend, M, she who so valiantly painted for me last summer, repotted one of the rose bushes in the front yard. The night before she and her sister had transplanted the first one, the most fragile of the four. It was great fun to watch them work together. The roses look happier already.

Then last evening M lengthened the string on my kitchen window shade. This is such a simple solution to giving me a better airflow that I am amazed (stupefied actually) that I didn't think of it years ago. The kitchen was several degrees cooler this morning. I had had an opening that was about a foot square with the previous short string. Now the shade goes up all the way and I can still pull it down.

The first crooked neck squash is growing on the plant in the side yard. It may be ready for picking tonight. This will be the first food from my own garden and I intend to treat it reverently; cherish it and eat it! I can hardly wait.

The weather gave us a respite from heat yesterday and the house cooled beautifully overnight to 69 degrees. I can really see the benefit of trees, for where I still have them there is lovely cool shade. Where they have been removed, or ruthlessly trimmed back, the house, as well as the ground near it, bakes in the heat. The temperature actually rises as the sun abates and the house hangs on to the heat. Since it is supposed to be fiercely hot tomorrow and Friday.

Slowly I am switching to a summer schedule and trying to resign myself to the too long days, the too bright house and the intermittent heat waves that are inevitable. Summer is upon us even though, officially, it doesn't start until next week. It will go by swiftly as did spring.

More Cooling Tips

As the heat wave wanes and I give thanks, I am thinking of more things to do to keep cool that are homely and inexpensive.

Stay hydrated. Water is best. It will seem like a delicious treat with a bit of ice. Keep a pitcher or refrigerator bottle full in the refrigerator. Pour the cold water into a glass over ice. Fill a reusable bottle three-quarters full and freeze overnight.
Now you can carry your ice-water with you wherever you go.

Wring a small towel or cloth out in cold water and put on your head or drape around your neck.

Spray mist yourself with water in a spray mister. (Put some ice in the mister bottle.) Don't overdue it. You want to cool yourself, not make a mess!

Lie down during the hottest hours, if you possibly can.

Eat cold meals so that you don't heat the kitchen and yourself. This is a great time for simple sandwiches and salads. Eat lightly. Put fruit in the refrigerator after you wash it so that you will have a cool treat.

Prepare meals in the morning and put the food in the fridge.

Slow down. If you need supplies, make lists and make one trip in the morning.

Follow the sun. Do things in the coolest parts of the house.

Dress appropriately. Light colored, light weight clothing that is loose-fitted will help you stay cool.

None of these ideas cost much money, but they are tried and true. They do not require going somewhere else to escape the heat, but allow one to cool in place--conserving resources in the process.

The Heat is On

The heat wave has truly materialized and is worse than I thought it could be. At 9:13 am it is 83 degrees. Not good. I am a winter person, spring and fall really. I do not like long days and especially not long, hot days. So how to make the house a cool cave and refuge.

First open up and run fans at night to bring in the cool air. Then as soon as possible in the morning close it all up again. Don't use any unnecessary appliances, especially not the washer, dryer, oven, television or computers during the hottest hours--noon to eight pm.

Hang outside blinds or sun shades over windows and the section of the house that gets late afternoon sun. Consider black-out cloth on the inside of windows. Construct trellises or arbors and grow things that will grow quickly to provide shade where you need it most.

If you have trees, give thanks for them and care for them. They need watering in hot weather if there is no rain.

Water yards and gardens in the morning or well after dark to conserve water. Water sparingly. Water is one of the earth's most precious resources.

Drink plenty of water and stay inside during the worst heat.

Offer up the discomfort for those who are in worse straights. Keep remembering the heat wave will pass. It is not a typhoon, a tornado or an earthquake. I am grateful.

Tuesday I discovered that one of my favorite sources for garden seeds, Bountiful Gardens is still operating in Willits, Ca. I was so happy, I spent quite a bit of time perusing their offerings and could, of course, plant an acre or two, if only I had an acre or two!

More when the weather is cooler!

Heat and Weather

The big question today is will it be hot or not? The heat wave finally really began to break yesterday and the 11:00 pm news showed fog, blessed fog moving into the Bay through the Golden Gate Bridge. Praise God! The difference that fog and no fog make is the difference between air conditioning and no air conditioning, for the fog and "offshore flow" are this areas' natural air-conditioning. I watched the outside temperature drop, and drop and drop and finally saw relief on the inside thermometer as well.

The air coming in through my windows seems cool. The air blowing through the reverse air fan is cool. The forecast says 85 or 91. Which one is right and what will it really be?

I hate being so preoccupied by the weather, but it does have one good result. It reminds me that I am not in charge. I do not make the weather. I only live with it.

There is fatigue that comes with a heat-wave that is not like any other fatigue. Since I have post-polio syndrome, which has its own fatigue issues, avoiding the stress of undue fatigue is necessary. The days of a heat wave go away resting and watching the clock, resting and staying hydrated and running the cycle of closing and opening windows. I will pay a price for the heat-wave fatigue. It will be several days before I am back to speed--just in time for the next heat wave, if the weather forecasters are correct.

It reminds me of how my ancestors lived and it reminds me that there are many other people, in this country and the underdeveloped world, who still live by the cycle of the weather and not by the convenient comfort of energy using cooling and heating devices.

Convenience is almost the middle name of most Americans today. It is part of the "meism" of our consumer oriented culture. This week I could gladly have used a little more convenience. I long for air-conditioning.