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The Pond thermometer shows above 105, almost 106 degrees at 1:50 PM. I paid $4.00 for it at Wal-Mart - I'm trusting it. Besides, I'm barely conscious after the trip outside. It must be that hot. 

Interesting Right Triangle attitude for the plants to assume. 

July 3, 2005

12:30 PM and 103 degrees. Still fairly humid so the heat could create afternoon storms. I'm thinking about mowing the berm but I'm also thinking about not. Every time I walk outside I have flashes of those lizards in the Sahara that use weird Tai Chi like poses to stand on the hot sand.

Interesting 

The water is like a new canvas every day. 

Within a month these should be covered with Morning Glory vines. 

Afternoon

By the time it reached 102, a storm started building. Now it is raining lightly and has cooled down some. Me too.

Friday, July 1, 2005

It is 10 AM and 88 degrees with 41% humidity. We are are being warned to expect "dangerous heat" today. The temperature is expected to reach 108 degrees (and they are usually conservative in their forecasts so 110 won't be strange).

Yesterday afternoon I was in the house and heard loud music coming from somewhere (and it was the awful sounding Mexican ballads with those walls of background accordions - the most annoying music of all) and when I went to investigate, it was coming from the pond. Bill was sitting there letting four men play loud music, drink beer and fish. I was so shocked I went over and just started the normal afternoon routine (changing water, removing debris, etc.) , but was furious. I have never played music out there because I don't want to bother the animals - and that ridiculous noise is the first they are exposed to? My brothers have probably drank beer out there, but the rest of us don't drink, and to pull out alcohol and start drinking at someone's house you don't even know is just rude. Also, we don't speak loudly and especially not out there, but they yelled at each other in Spanish the entire time trying to be heard over their music. After two hours I heard him tell them that was enough and to put their beer bottles in the trash can before they left. Did he mean the trash can that only I ever empty? I encountered all of the people sitting there through the police department at one time or another, and not because they wanted to report crimes. They were never friendly then and they've never been friendly (or even good neighbors - they drive 70 and 80 through our neighborhood several times a day) when I've seen them since, and now I'm going to have to carry off their trash. Besides, what kind of people do you have to tell to pick up their beer bottles out of your yard? What kind of people would just toss beer bottles on the ground at a place as nice as the pond?

The pond is a sanctuary in which to escape from the annoying loud music, obnoxious conversation and beer bottles of life, and to invite those things into such a place is the worst form of sacrilege. I won't get over this for a while but have already launched a counter-strike. I spent a few minutes with my sister and she was ready for war by the time he got back in the house. I can't argue with him because it is their place, and he is big and mean (plus he apparently has rapid on-set dementia), but his wife and daughter can and will until they win.

There, I feel better.