Ridiculously Hot and Humid!

Today.  It's 81 degrees F right now  and not the peak of the day yet, and the dew point is a wringing-wet 68 - downright tropical.  The sun is HOT and burning.  There is a slight breeze out of the southwest, no relief there.  I am waiting for the sun to head around behind my trees to venture out in the yard.  I knew I should have finished cutting that damn grass yesterday.  Most of the backyard has yet to be done, drat! 

I've got laundry going - it's downright frigid in my basement, am seriously thinking about camping out down there tonight, it's hot and stuffy in my bedroom, probably should NOT have opened up the windows, wider this morning but the fresh air was so tempting and last night it was cool and foggy, I slept with a quilt on! 

I make the weekend-trek to the supermarket, I got the front yard trimmed and swept early this morning, during the shady part of the day out there.  I sweated like a stuck pig, no lie, it was really gross!  Why do I seem to sweat with no effort when no one else does?  I mean, it wasn't like I was working out, I was bending over using electric grass shears to do the trimming and then I swept up the trimmings and the gunk that always seems to accumulate in my gutters curbside.  The entire exercise took 1.5 hours which was surprising, but the front yard does look spiffy :)

I also set up the umbrella on the patio and did some trimming around the deck, to fool myself into thinking it looks "neat" back there, LOL!  The deck is calling...and I'm into Amanda Quick's latest, "The Burning Lamp" and am having a rip-roaring good time reading an absolutely not-serious Victorian era "romance/adventure."  I've been feeding the critters non-stop, I spotted a real live blue bird at the bird bath this morning - just a flash - haven't seen one of them around since May, 2007 so I hope it's a good sign.  The birds are going ga-gag in the birdbath in this heat and humidity, already filled it twice.  Time to put out the other two baths! 

I watched chess online yesterday (U.S. Championships). I like the duo of Jen Shahade and Maurice Ashley but to tell the truth, I liked Ben Finegold's analysis last year at the U.S. Women's Chess Championship with Shahade much better.  Nothing against Ashley, he's a fine commentator, no doubt about it.  He's clear as a bell and very personable.  I just like Finegold's style better.  I love Shahade.  I know, people seem to either love her or hate her style.  I love her. 

I worked on the family tree - almost finished with it, amazing as that is.  Now I'm going back and filling in as many blank spots as I can and also securing birth/marriage/death records, etc. - getting seriously ready to write it all up and get the baby published.  I'm sooooo glad I'm doing this, it's been a wonderful, astounding and enlightening experience all around. 

On top of reading my junk novel and going to bed at 9 p.m. - yes - 9 p.m., I actually got decent sleep and feel human today!  I woke up at 6:40 a.m. and felt REFRESHED for the first time in ages.  It was wonderful.  Right now I'm shutting down the computer for a bit and hitting the deck with my Amanda Quick and a big freezing cold glass of cheap wine.  I've got shorts on and a tee, my hair is pinned up (only thing to do with it since I sweat so much and it gets all funky), my feet are bare and dirty.  I feel like a kid :)