Elk Lake Plein Air #1

I actually slept really well at the lake house.

The kitty cat and puppy woke up hungry.

No oppressive heat!!

This was familiar... :)

This morning first thing after taking care of the critters we went to the farmer's market and grocery store for good provisions.

Just like me, Kedrin loves eggs so we got 2 dozen beautiful farm eggs.

The green ones are my favorite.

The kitty is an indoor cat but his people put him on a harness and take him for a walk.

This cat is DESPERATE to be outside.

I did a painting.

8x10 oil, just under 2 hours.

I did not do another painting because we went for a nice swim in the lake and then soaked in the sun on the swim-float off the dock.

I made this fire and am EXTREMELY proud of it.

(The owners told us we could use the firepit.)

Yes we toasted marshmallows.

Fire still going a couple hours later...

(I am VERY PROUD of this fire.)

The kitty really, really wanted to be outside with us.

Blissful 49 degrees!

Exiting Heatwave Roadtrip

Kedrin's landlady's family has a lake house in PA.
They are taking their son to college this weekend, and need someone to watch the cat and dog.

Kedrin said yes, and they told her she can bring a friend or two.

Bitz couldn't join us, so it was just me and Kedrin for a kind-of last-minute weekend getaway.

We left Friday afternoon.

I made 2 cheesecakes (Daya got a Costco-tub that needed to be used) and onigiri.

What should have been a 2 1/2-3 hour drive was just under 5 hours.

There were about 4 accidents on the road (none of them us!) and some people being stupid, and the GPS was extremely stupid once.

But we made it.

Heatwave Vet Bill

Pebbles had her annual vet visit today.

She's fine.

I really only did it because I want them to keep giving me her heart meds, and it's good to know that Pebbles is ok, even though I already know she is.

She has a really minor faint heart murmur, it started a couple of years ago.

I am NOT doing the echo etc again, and the vet is not forcing it.

Bloodwork and pee normal.

She does have a tartar-cement tooth which the vet says is a problem, but she wont do a dental without an echocardiogram so I'm leaving it alone.

In general, Pebbles likes to be wherever I am, but this does not apply to the vet.

Heatwave Cat Nap

(We have gone down to the 80s so it's still hot but not a heatwave anymore but I'm sticking with the title theme because it is, in fact, still gross outside.)

Part of working from home involves taking cat pictures throughout the day.

This is a perfect picture of Isis:

She had a good nap on the cabinets.

Heatwave Nightmare

I did a whole bunch of nothing yesterday, I just couldn’t do anything.

Some days are like that.

I’ll have to make up for it today, i have a lot of things that need doing.

One thing I CAN do very well is sleep.

I definitely slept too much yesterday.

And I had an Actual Nightmare, it was terrible!

It’s no secret I hate French Easels.

And i had a dream that I was outdoors painting, or rather looking for the right view to paint a particular lovely bit of landscape, and for some reason I was carrying around a stupid French Easel and all i did was fight with the damn thing and I couldn’t find a good spot to set up and it was heavy and bulky, then the light changed and the trees I wanted to paint didn’t look so good anymore.

Stupid French easel.

Yesterday was 91 degrees.

Today we go up to 95.

With humidity.

Heatwave Hypothermia

In Winter, I have been saying for a while that death will take me from heatstroke in the middle of February when it is 17 degrees F (-9C) out. This could happen while I am coming home from subzero painting, wearing heaters and 13 lbs of clothing.

Until today, I never considered it might be hypothermia in August during a heatwave!!

I did not expire today, but I almost got hypothermia during a NYC heatwave.  

Daya's Move|NYC intensive starts tomorrow, and today was orientation.

A four hour long orientation.

For parents and students.

So I went to the boathouse in the morning, because it's not that far away.

Right before I had to leave, we had our very own Pier 26-specific rainstorm.

I was soaking wet.
I did not bring a change of clothes because I did not plan on getting soaking wet.

Look how this black raincloud is only directly above the pier.

So I went to the 4 hour long dance orientation soaking wet.

At the end of it I was Mostly Damp.

The air conditioning in that building is rather excellent, but it is not a good thing if you are soaking wet.

I was shivering and my fingers were numb.

And it was 95 degrees outside.

Heatwave Painting

After the 5k, we raided the fridge for water at the boathouse.

I thought there would be water at the race.... but nope, just ice cream and warm Fanta, which Daya couldn't even drink and I don't blame her.

Fortunately, I know the combination to the Governor's Island boathouse and can raid the fridge, which is well-stocked with water.

Then Daya caught the 9:45 ferry back, and I stayed on Governor's Island.

I had my painting gear nd my boathouse volunteer gear, and I wasn't sure quite what to do.
I was too early for volunteering so I figured I should attempt a painting, even though I still feel weird and kinda artistically dead.

So I found a spot and did a painting, and i am so, so very out-of-practice.  I really felt it.

The painting is "meh", I had some trouble I don't usually have due to being rusty, but I got through it!

I still feel weird.

But I showed up and did it!

8x10 oil 2 1/2 hours

My new box is good, it feels a lot different than my Belly River and I'm getting used to it.

Afterwards i did volunteer at the boathouse for about an hour and a half, but between the horrible heat and waking up at 5am, I caught the 3pm ferry back and went home.

******

I haven't bought a new game for a long time, but there is a new one out called Stray.

It is EXCELLENT.

I have caught (so far) two Skyrim easter eggs.... one of the characters says "Some may call this junk. Me? I call them treasures!"

And the second one...

HAHAHAHAHA!

Heatwave 5k

This morning I woke up at 5am to leave at 6:15am to go with Daya to Governor's Island.

She ran a 5k!

I was not allowed to take Daya's picture.

Daya came in first in her category, Females 15-19!!

She did this race because Nigel (dance) said "build up your endurance".

She trained for only two weeks!

I think these results are pretty impressive!!

Heatwave Sweatpants

Daya needs contact lenses.

This is Thing Two I have been needing to do for her since April.

Dance makes basic life things so difficult to schedule. But she starts dance on Monday and I have .... today... to do this, otherwise it has to wait until September.

(Thing One was a joint bank account so she can have a debit card instead of her old savings account with ATM-only access. I also opened up a joint credit card for us. Mostly I need to get my main credit card off Apple Pay and family sharing, and there's no way to do that without having a payment method on file, since I have subscriptions for cloud storage. And I think it helps her start having a credit history.  The bank person said no, not until she's 18 but when I added her as a signer the phone person said yes because I gave them her ssn.

Welcome to The Machine, kid....... )

************

So, contact lenses.

Daya does NOT have my eye issues thank goodness, but she's got some stuff going on.
Most of her prescription is astigmatism correction. And she wants contacts for dance.

She only uses her glasses now and then, and we aren't even going to fill her new prescription for them.

Daya will be in soft lenses. She has a different prescription in each eye.

Of course none of this is covered by medical insurance.

***********
We went to Costco to get Daya food for net week, when she starts dance all day every day again.

(I think she has Sundays off?)

It is 89/feels like 94 out and my child is wearing Actual Sweatpants.

I got exactly one thing for me at Costco, more of these...I love them:

*********

My friend Catherine (whose daughter is also a rising senior at LaGuardia (drama) and lives in our neighborhood) was also out at Costco and we met up.  Daya went home with the cart of groceries.

I walked with Catherine back to her home across the neighborhood, then I walked back home through the neighborhood to places I used to go every day but rarely go these days.

Like Daya's old preschool, which is still there but looks different, a little more overgrown.
I think it is still in business though.

The same playground stuff is still in the yard.  It has been there since before she started preschool when she was 3.

I walked on our old daily route when she was a toddler going to preschool before I went to work.  It's crazy how time passes.

I also went by the playground at Daya's first elementary school.  She learned to ride her bike there, and also played there since she was 1 year old.

One day I hope Daya will walk through the neighborhood and feel a sense of home, having grown up in the neighborhood and having the places of her childhood still there for her when she is an adult.

She doesn't really like it now, she wants to live in Manhattan like her fancy rich dance friends.

But our neighborhood is still a Very Good Neighborhood and I like it here.

Heatwave Cats

My cats hold up better than I do during heatwaves.

Pebbles greatly prefers when we are home, and she literally guards the front door.  

I need to get a picture of it.

Synchronized torties don't spoon in the heat but they stay close together.

Furball and her band-aid toe!

Pebbles helps me work.

Isis likes being up there too, and she jumped up hoping Pebbles would move, which she did not.

Isis sulked to me about it.

Pebbles finally moved to a more inconvenient location.

Heatwave Tuesday

August is starting with a heatwave.
(of course it is)

So I went to the office today, and Daya came with me.

She's running a 5k on Governor's Island this Saturday, and she went over there quickly to check out the route.

I wanted to show Daya the office too.  She's been in every single place I have worked since she was born.

We were going to go to the boathouse after work but we both felt really tired and sluggish, so we went home instead.

I slept for an hour first thing after getting home.

August is so ugh.

Statue of Liberty view:

At Least Pre-August is Over

 First thing this morning I texted Carey, "It's August again."

She hates it just as much as I do.

Carey said "At least Pre-August is over."

July is totally pre-August.

Ugh.

******
I found Isis taking a nap like this.