T-ball and heat warnings

Freight cars these days... graffiti central.  Some of them are pretty artsy, too.  This was Sunday afternoon on the way to FGC's T-ball game.   

We were under an extreme heat warning Saturday noon through Monday evening.  Ember stayed home in her crate in the A/C.  When she trotted in voluntarily, I checked the schedule and decided I could make it to the game. I got treated to an art show on wheels on the way.

Foster grand kiddo played well, tried hard, hustled a bit, and thus earned his after-game icee!

I came home covered in sweat to let Ember out, then when she got tired enough, I went upstairs to shower off.

Monday was a quiet "mommy and me" day, with a longish "pack migration" walk in the coolest part of the day, and a car ride to get mommy an iced mocha still in the morning, before the heat of the afternoon got to its worst.  Ember is not a fan of the hottest weather, but we managed to get outside for all the usual business!

Tuesday over 80F even at 6 a.m.  Yeah, I know, worse in other places than here, but still!  Hot and muggy.  Ember doesn't even want to go out to do her business, but it is day care day, and she's off to play with her puppy friends.  It went on to be a blisteringly hot day.  I felt for the lawn mowers and noticed they wasted no time in getting the job done Tuesday afternoon.  

I dragged my feet about "last call" as it was 93F even at 7:40 p.m.  But Ember was happy at that point to have some back yard time; at least the sun wasn't beating down on us!

We got a front through about midnight and then the temperatures dropped down to a lovely 70F to start Wednesday morning.  It was still humid, but Ember and I went out and enjoyed our morning "pack migration".  

Puppy nap #1 gave me a chance to pay bills and make The Prisoner's next vet appointment, which will be in August.  He'll have an office visit and his feline lukemia booster.  For an extra fee they will upgrade it to a senior appointment which means they take his blood pressure and offer medication to deal with that if it is the case.  I don't know about some of the more extreme measures for cats.  My older sister the cat person in the family and I discuss this every so often:  how far do we do medical stuff for our animals?  How much would we do them for ourselves, for that matter?  We're getting into that "senior" phase of life, too.

The trainer gave me a heads up that Thursday he won't be working, so I have a full day of "human freedom" while Ember has her day care. As it turned out, I was again pretty worn out and ended up vegging the whole day.

Oh, and my son has gifted the family with Hulu, Disney+, and HBO profiles... and I'm in danger of falling into some black holes of streaming here.  I've already fallen down the rabbit hole of The Gilded Age season 3!  Wednesday through Friday I caught up to where they are releasing them, one a week.  It's like eating ice cream... one just makes me want the next one.  Hulu has The Handmaid's Tale, and I'm at least one season behind on that series, but I'm not sure I have the stomach to watch it anymore.  Dark and violent, not appropriate for dogs or children!

Speaking of the extended family, son took 3 days of leave to have stay-cation time before FGC heads back to school.  Kiddo had a soccer camp, they did a lot of pool time (chilly pool time on Friday!), and several family friendly activities, in addition to t-ball practice.  Thursday's t-ball practice was a game of parents versus kids.  As is normal, the kids smoked the parents!

We are entering the month of August with a week of "cooler than average" temperatures.  

Friday morning "surprise" adventure involved The Prisoner and Ember and the front entry to the house.  The photo shows the wall that screens the porch landing from the street view.  This is an old photo from 2023 when I had brick work done, and it's a "work in progress" photo, not a "finished project" one.

The Prisoner jumped up onto the wall on the right-hand side just as Ember and I were mounting the steps to come back from our morning walk.  Ember sprang at the cat, landing on the other side of the wall.  This left me on the landing, holding one end of her leash, Ember looking around in puzzlement, and the cat skedaddling out of sight into the back yard (Snagglepuss, exit, stage left).  

Thank goodness I was able to lift the leash over the light fixtures and encourage Ember to walk in front of the wall until she could get round the left end, back onto the landing and the steps with me, and on into the house!  Made me laugh.  And it is fortunate for me that she is pretty compliant, more and more these days.

I think that is enough of Ember's week of adventures!  

Life is good.  Spark on!