Ah, so this is my kingdom.

We received notice that LZP has a new furbaby; his name is Bluto Frankenstein. We think he is about 12 weeks old or thereabouts. And, if you are not an expert at recognizing breeds, he is a Saint Bernard. He is going to GROW. We think there will be lots of stories and we will be reporting.

THIS FELLOW

from all of us at

The PBC & R

and from

Dog Heaven

In the morning, I usually check the news and the weather and email, and maybe surf a bit. Today, I did the first three and then decided I wanted to check on a couple of books at Goodreads. And so I did; I was reading about one novel when I noticed a small insert on the side of the page. It included a small picture of three book covers (I am trying to give myself a reason for my misinterpretation here – hence the double use of the word “small”.) At any rate, the book in the middle was “A Cupboard Full of Goats” and my curiosity was piqued.

I’d watched the movie “Men Who Stare at Goats” so I thought, well, why not take a closer look at this book? As it turns out, the real title is “A Cupboard Full of Coats.” I was bummed. I know, I know: the book is probably a good one about a group of people – a family or bridge club or whatever who hang their coats together. All sorts of stories could come out of the cupboard.

But I was psyched for goats. Knowing me, I may have to designate a cupboard in my house as the Goat One. (I’d slam the barn door on that idea, but the horse is already out.) I’m getting too old for all this stuff for when I was younger, it made me eccentric, but now that I am hard onto my significant next birthday, I’m afraid it would be interpreted as “Oh, she’s in her dotage.”

A further complication: Why isn’t the cupboard called a closet if it holds coats? Are they folded and stored? Well, that introduces possibilities of a different plot. Still a personal type story, but addressing other, maybe sadder, plot developments. I’m going to have to look it up now, because I CAN NEVER JUST LEAVE WELL ENOUGH ALONE.

Still, I’m not giving up my Goat Cupboard.

It’s not that I locked myself out of the Peanut Butter Cafe & Roadhouse; it’s not that the power is out or we had a burst pipe in the Foo Bar. We’ve just been funking around and while funking can be restful for the funker, it would be boring to anyone having daily updates of it.

Perhaps after I had watched a couple of episodes of “Lost in Transition” which is about four married men transitioning into women, I found myself thinking, WHAT AM I DOING? HAVE I SUNK THIS LOW?  And the answer was, “Well, I guess so.”  I further realized I had been watching “600 Lb. Life” and Netflix shows about prisons. Der Bingle suggested that I needed to find one called “600 Lb. Transgender Criminals.” I felt like hanging my head. I have not exactly been on the Masterpiece Theater track.

Since I’m wandering down Confession Lane, I have to admit I have read three Kindle Unlimited escapist books, just bang, bang, bang. Ever so seldom, I would think I should do something productive, then I just pushed that out of my mind and kept doing the Kindle equivalent of flipping the pages.

If there is any news, it is that, although trying to lose weight, I have discovered Mushroom with Truffle Oil pizzas . . . and Goat Cheese Pizzas. I was fascinated by the names and had to try them; I am fairly certain I will not be fascinated by anything called Roadkill Pizza.

According  weather.com, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and a couple of other states are located within a Ring of Fire”. Perhaps the volcano activity in Hawaii has caused the folks at the weather website to make an analogy. It may be apt, but it is not a happy play on words for us in the new R of F zone.

I have been writing a lot about the weather lately; it may be my new obsession. I will just let it run its course, while the temperature heat-up does its thing. And, of course, I will be researching Indian Cool Down Dances, which are less-well known than the Rain Dance. (I will have to keep a careful for anyone with a cell phone video camera.) Caught on tape, my performance might by titled “Little Old Lady Crazy Dance.” It is a chance I will have to take.

I hope it is a slow dance, but maybe it will turn out to have echoes of Johnny Cash.

…EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IN EFFECT FROM NOON EDT /11 AM CDT/ TODAY TO 8 PM EDT /7 PM CDT/ SUNDAY… The National Weather Service in Northern Indiana has issued an Excessive Heat Warning…which is in effect from noon EDT /11 AM CDT/ today to 8 PM EDT /7 PM CDT/ Sunday. The Excessive Heat Watch is no longer in effect. HAZARDOUS WEATHER… * Long duration extreme heat event. Temperatures will peak into the lower to middle 90s today and Sunday, with middle to upper 90s on Saturday. Heat indices will reach near 105 today and Sunday, around 110 on Saturday. * Humid with low temperatures in the middle 70s tonight and Saturday night. IMPACTS… * The combination of hot temperatures and high humidity will lead to an increased risk of heat related stress and illness.

Last January, I believe the temperature went down to way below zero and I typed that we were all going to freeze and I would probably rue those words come summer. I am RUE-ing, big time.  There may be a hot time in the ole town tonight, but this is one party I would be glad to miss. Two days ago the high was in the low 70’s; today when I left to go to the store, it was 90 degrees and “felt like 95” and I quote weather.com.

I know that I wrote earlier – a month ago, maybe – that I needed to get outside a bit each day and acclimate myself to warmer weather. It was like a New Year’s Resolution; I didn’t lie, but I doubted I would religiously follow through. Oh, God, I regret it now. I really regretted it just after getting into my black car that had been in a paved parking lot.

As I anticipate a “significant birthday” as my doctor called it, I suspect my heat angst has something to do with age. Whatever. However, I am going to make myself go outside in the cooler mornings and then add afternoon time so I won’t faceplant myself if I have to walk a few blocks, let alone mow the lawn. I figure about the time I get adjusted, it will be time for fall and cooler temps.

I am thankful for iced tea, cold meat sandwiches that are bite-sized and air-conditioning. And when I am hot and outside, I am glad for sweat, for it would be very bad for my insides to get as hot as the inside of my car.

This is neither here no there as to any opinion about anything concerning social media; it is just written chuckle, a result of irony in a nutshell. I remember when I was in school, oh long ago, there was a lot of talk and speculation about the future. You know, “1984” and “Brave New World” and the admonishing that if Big Brother wasn’t watching now, he certainly would be in the future.

Well, I’m certain Big Brother is observing and compiling a lot of information, but what struck me this morning is the number of cell phone camera videos made by all of us, and some catching embarrassing or offensive behavior. All Little Brother has to do is post it to the Internet and BOOM.

So Big Brother may be watching everything, but Little Brother is everywhere. I don’t think I expected it all those years ago.

Everything is incredibly green, because we have had lots and lots of rain. There is a weedkiller you can apply to dry grass that only requires one hour to set before rain will not wash it away. So good luck on getting that applied.

A very few days ago the the temperature was in the mid to high 90’s and this morning it was 61 degrees at 10 am. I think it has gone up about a degree. In a few days, it will be hot again. This has been a most unusual summer.

I know this is an off-the-wall topic for me to blog about, but my grandson turned the TV on to a multi-part documentary on rescue teams in the Alps. It is titled The Horn, referring to the Matterhorn, and I was impressed. The scope of detailed preparation and maintenance of equipment to facilitate rescues caught my attention, and the professionalism and maturity of the rescue team members was humbling.

I could go into a lot of details talking about the rescues, but I wouldn’t do it justice. If you get a chance, watch at least one of the episodes and learn about helicopters in the fickle (and cold) weather of the Alps and the paramedics, mountain guide rescue specialists who go down, down, down into crevasses that have opened up and grabbed hikers and skiers in the snap of the fingers.

And, in addition to the topic, the scenery is tremendous.