Heat Waves

 It's hot here in N E Oklahoma... but not as hot as my Texas family has it! I just looked at the forecast- you really can't guess too much more than a week out! But the Weather Guessers are predicting it to be over 100 every day between now and the first of August- with the exception of this coming Sunday,  at a mere 97* . The Texas family has had heat of 114 for several days... not counting the "heat index". That's a straight up number taken in the shade! Looks like Texas is looking to break the 1980 heat wave record of 100 days over 100*.

Mr C and I went down to East Texas this past weekend. Tom hasn't been down to see my folks in quite awhile. My Uncle Doug was in from California, getting a visit with his brother (and sister in Ft Worth) while he still can. Dad has done fair to middling on memory. Still doesn't think his house is his own home, and is seeing stuff. Uncle just goes with the flow. Yesterday, dad's primary doctor changed his provider to a home health care (Hospice) provider. (Non-terminal Hospice) So Dad will have a visiting nurse coming out. They will send someone to help clean and prepare light meals a day or two per week. I am hoping it gives my brother, and sister-in-law a break.

Got back to Oklahoma Monday evening, to our first fruits from the garden. Three baseball bats... er, zucchini. They hadn't been more than two inches long when we left Saturday morning. We also got several cucumbers. The little "lemon drop" cucumbers are loaded on the vine. I anticipate a large harvest of them not too many days from now. Meanwhile, I have sauce simmering to make a lasagna with zucchini instead of noodles. I'm running on the last case of my home canned tomatoes from last year. However... our tomatoes are coming on strong this year. I don't have any near ripe yet, but in the next week, I should be canning. The green beans are giving me a handful of beans every day. The okra is short, but covered in blooms. That should also start giving us fruit (or veggies?) within days.

The house painting is slowly coming along. Tom's been working so much OT, Bob has been doing all the painting he can, whenever he can. The heat dictates a very short window of time to be painting in the mornings.
Daniel and Sam rigged up a Dante containment field, to keep Dante on the property when Sam leaves for work, during the Big Trip. they built it primarily from pallets- available at $1 each from a local supplier. It will give Dante a bigger yard than he would have in town, and saves my house from bored doggy destruction. I'm not sure what day Dante will come to stay... but I need to be in Texas on the 17 or 18 of August.

The current 'plan' (loosely called a plan) is for me to arrive in Texas the day that Becky and Daniel return from trek. Dan works the next day. Becky and I will load and organize the trailer that day that Dan is working. (Becky will need to do Trek laundry and sort through trek stuff that needs to go with us vs. stuff that does not.) Dan gets off at 7:00 am, and he wants us loaded and ready to go when he gets off. I am guessing we are picking him up in San Angelo, saving him two hours of travel that will be used to move on towards the west coast. Taking turns driving, we will push for the 30 hour drive to be made with as few stops as possible. (We have 3 drivers available.)