Dull, frustrating, hot

Presenting, my monthly blog post. This one may never be posted. Just as well. Things have been dull and frustrating lately.

And hot. Some hot, sticky weather invaded the Upper Midwest this week, bringing along temperatures into the mid 90s and high humidity. We live in a two-story house that only has a room air conditioner in the bedroom--Janet and I have to put it in place each spring and then remove it in the fall. The door doesn't seal very well, either.

But I'll tell you, it sure has been nice sleeping during the hot spell. At about 9 p.m. each day, while we're watching TV downstairs or sitting on the porch (wherever things are cooler or more interesting), I go upstairs, close any windows that may be open, turn on the AC and go back downstairs, closing the door behind me. By the time I take Janet to bed at about 10:30, it's nice and cool (if a little noisy).

We went outside for about 15 minutes Tuesday night--light rain, but no lightning or thunder. On Monday night, we were on the porch for over an hour, watching the lightning and hearing the thunder as a storm system neared. But we only got a little rain--the system moved from the north and went west of us.

Everybody seems to be dealing with stuff this summer. Including my special friends.

B had applied for a job at a different university, in a bigger city. She really had her heart set on it: more stores, more cultural places, cheaper airline tickets, and both she and her husband have their own special friends who live nearby--within easy driving distance. She came really close to getting the job, but in the end she lost out to a gal who had worked at the university 11 years. (She was at 9 1/2 years at the smaller place.) So she is pretty disappointed.

N was gone in Illinois for a while, and now she is disappointed in an adult daughter of hers. She hasn't been specific, but it seems to be a case of her drifting towards alcoholism, and she (N) can't keep her life from crashing onto the rocks. There is a family history of alcoholism.

N rarely drinks, and she has never done so while with me. We can get wild and crazy on our own, natural highs, and booze is not needed or wanted.

With K, it has been a very busy summer schedule. She worked 48 hours one week at the store when a big country music festival was in town. The next week, she drove to her home town to see a high school friend who was visiting from Delaware. This week, she and her boyfriend are visiting the same clothing-optional camp (former farm with a pond) that I visited with S and T in late June.

(Interesting. Of my four special friends, three of them enjoy nudity. The fourth is the one in Alaska, who didn't get the university job.)

K has been busy, but it has also been frustrating that we haven't been able to get together for a visit for over a month. But that long, long wait is nearly over--we are getting together next Wednesday, for a day and a night.

Once I get home from that, the car won't have much time to rest. At about noon that day, my wife and I leave for a trip to a quilt show in NW Wisconsin. It's a roundabout route--we are hitting several quilt shops along the way, and we will also be visiting and having lunch with N--her home is in the woods just a short distance off our route. My wife has met N at least once before; in fact, it was her idea.

All that is on Thursday. On Friday, we go to the quilt show and another shop, and we also have dinner with some of her sisters and brothers at a local casino, where they have a nice spread. That will be a rarity for my wife and me; neither of us have set foot inside a casino for many, many years. The appeal of casinos is something both of us have yet to fully understand.

It's a three-day, two-night trip. Then we go back home. After that, the big project for August lies before us: We have finally agreed that it is time to get another car. The odometer on little old Mazda currently reads 201,000+ miles, and it has seen better days. And years.

The money is available; we won't have to take a loan. We know what we want, too, after a lot of research. The only problems are (A) we need to take time off from work to do this because (B) all the dealerships are many, many miles from the Northwoods. The dealerships are located in population centers. You can say many things about the Northwoods, but it's anything but a population center. There are roughly 11,000 people in the entire county!

So it's an internet search that is ongoing. Sooner or later, we'll find what we are looking for.

One more thing happens in early August: It will be 40 years since my wife and I said our I-dos. Forty years. Amazing. Sometimes we look at each other and laugh and shake our heads. For all that has gone on, for all the mid-course corrections we have made to our relationship (and, as you know, some of them were not minor), we still enjoy being with each other. Touching each other in the middle of the night. Playing. Eating together. Sitting together, watching TV or the movements of the clouds outside. I keep her informed about my special friends. She fills me in on her sisters and brothers.

Life moves on. We do, too. After we got sick a couple months ago, we agreed it would be wise to start eating smaller meals. Today, they are _a little_ smaller. But we are eating less, and that's the main thing.