Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here to bring you up to date on what’s been going on with me, mostly. You may remember me from such posts as “Even More Different”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose. I forget why I had to be in my upstairs fort, but here I am. 
It’s been hot. I mean like really, really, really hot. So I don’t do much. I learned how to do nothing from the guy I live with, who does even less.
What he likes to do is stare at the floor. He does this a lot. He’s stared at the floor for years now. Not all the time, but sometimes. Like a couple of days ago there was some wind, which for some reason is now an unusual feature of our climate, and the wind was moving the leaves in the tree just off the patio, and making kind of flickering patterns on the floor. You can’t see the patterns here but maybe you can imagine them. This is where he mostly stares at the floor. There isn’t anything special there.
It rains almost every day, for a few minutes. It doesn’t help the garden, but it sometimes cool things off for a while. Today it rained while the sun was shining.
I guess you can’t see the rain in the picture above. Maybe you can in the one below. 
It stopped almost as soon as it started, as they say.
And so it got hot again. Even with my new smoothness, I still get roasting hot. And the garden is so dry that some plants have died. The guy I live with doesn’t have a huge amount of energy because of the hormone therapy, and, I would say anyway, that he spends an awful lot of time staring at the floor, so almost no gardening has been done in over a month.
The other thing with it being so hot and dry is being constantly landed on, when I go for my walks. I mentioned this in my last post, and I think it’s getting worse. 
The guy I live with says I spend so much time trying to figure out what’s just landed on me that the walks take forever. I would say almost forever, because otherwise we’d still be walking.
He says it’s mostly baby grasshoppers jumping on me while I walk, and tried to get a movie of the hundreds of grasshoppers and other things jumping up as I walk by them and then landing on me, but he couldn’t make the movie for some reason. Being landed on drives me crazy. So does having things crawl on me.
I suppose if there weren’t so much grass in the field that there would be fewer bugs to land on me, but maybe not. 
I got to go in the canal for a minute to cool off. 
On this part of the walk, the guy I live with discovered something weird. 
He carries a cane with him on our walks, not using it to walk much but just in case, and there was this little bump on the side of the road. 
He tapped it with his cane and said it sounded hollow. That totally creeped me out. He talked about “the red-headed league” in the Sherlock Holmes story and how Holmes tapped the street with his cane to determine if there was tunneling, which he always thought kind of far-fetched, but here this part of the road was hollow.
I began to wonder what was going on under my feet as I walked. Probably not tunneling, but the guy I live with said you never know. I don’t really like weirdness, and neither does the guy I live with. He said it probably wasn’t anything; maybe a buried pipe.
I guess all I can say about this is that I’m really, really, tired of it being so really, really hot, and I’m ready for some snow. The guy I live with said I have about four months before that happens. At least I won’t be landed on so much, when the weather gets cold again. I’ll just have to wait. 
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
I am ready for cooler temperatures here too Mani.
It’s getting old. Hot, day after day. It wouldn’t be so bad if we also had sun. The guy I live with said that when it’s hot, totally overcast and dark, with no wind, it feels like an oven here.
Denver used to be a windy place, but now wind is rare.
:: Denver used to be a windy place, but now wind is rare. ::
That is so odd, and ominous. I haven’t read much about how climate change affects specific weather phenomena beyond more/intensified storms. Wonder if there’s any kind of “explainer” on how that happens.
I don’t know. The guy I live with talks about it a lot. Right now the air is dead still, and it stays that way even as night falls, which it certainly didn’t used to do. It’s windy when storms come, of course, but the windy days we used to have seem to be a thing of the past. The wind would blow all the smell from next door away from us.
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I’m sorry so many grasshoppers and things are landing on you. Do you think there are more of them now, or that before your recent smoothing you just didn’t notice as much?
Surely their numbers will drop before it actually snows. I hope it stops being super roasting soon, for the sake of TGYLW as well as yours. When it’s cool enough to garden, I bet his energy will pick up a bit, hormones or no. Summer here is much more bearable than some years, but it can turn ugly quickly, so I’m trying to make myself take advantage for a little while every day.
Thanks. I think I’m noticing them more because I’m so smooth, and no roasting hot undercoat to act as a buffer. The guy I live with says grasshoppers feed on drought-stressed plants, which is practically everything around here for miles. Just not in the garden. There were at couple of years back in the early days here, late 1980s, when the whole garden was covered with grasshoppers. The guy had “tobacco juice” stains on his clothes from them. Gross, huh? We are just waiting for autumn, now.
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I’m sorry about your weather. It’s as hot there as here in S. Oregon and something is wrong with that. AC is a necessity here, and maybe will be there too. I think somewhere or other TGYLW mentioned cataracts which prevent him from losing himself in a good book. I had those too, but the surgery is very easy and covered by Medicare. It’s like having someone come by and wash a filthy window you’ve been trying to see through. Makes all the difference. I’d go nuts without books. My floor isn’t worth staring at. Covered with dog hair and then nothing will do but getting up and cleaning. And, I agree, having bugs land on you repeatedly is a special kind of torture. Well here’s to various kinds of improvement coming quickly for both of you.
Thanks; it is pretty roasting hot here. 93F right now, 14% humidity.
The guy I live with can read perfectly well with his reading glasses; the eye dr. said 20-20 with glasses, but he gets easily distracted and would rather listen to music. He can’t do both of those things because the music takes over.
Meow meow Mani all tho’ wee are diffyrent speecess mee does NOT like to bee buzzed on or landed on eether!!! Makess mee FREEK out!!!! There are 2 stupid flies inn our place an mee iss goin smackeypaw them when they get close to mee! LadyMeow has tried to whack them butt shee iss slo (oh so slo!).
You had a sunshower??? WOW! Wee had one last week. It was short an it made it *hotter* here too. Wee have had a few hue-mid ucky dayss butt THE kewl down iss comin! HURRAH!! Mee will bee glad when THE fliess an such bugg….bug off…..mew mew mew…
Not sure if you saw mee bloggie post so mee tell you LadyMeow has bin diagnosed with Livurr Disease. Shee has given away a lot of foodss an buyin a lot of No/Low Cholesterol foodss. Shee got her Bee Pee down to 120/70 with full dose of meddycin. Today her Bee Pee creeped upss again. Beetween her health an yore poor ‘guy’ wee sure have our pawss full. Maybee yore ‘guy’ iss watchin shadowss on THE floor? Or meddytatin? LadyMeow has bin furry seereuss an doin a lot of starin inn to space. It iss sorta weerd. An shee tellss mee 87 timess a day how much shee lovess mee (which iss nice but weerd!)
Pleese give yore ‘guy’ some ~~head rubss~~ from mee, BellaDharma
An **purrsss** to you both…..
Flies can be very annoying, can’t they? We did read the post and we’re sorry to hear about LadyMeow. The guy I live with has something slightly amiss with his liver. He went to the Rocky Mountain Cancer Center today, to have blood drawn. He does that three times a year. He is very much afraid of being separated from me, somehow, since he got me to have some grounding in the world. And someone to talk to every day, besides talking to people on the phone. But we’re together right now, and that’s what matters.
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Now there are 2 Fliess inn here Mani! Mee iss hidin under pill-oh when they buzz bye mee!
Thanx fore yore kind werdss ’bout LadyMeow. Iss still wurryin butt shee sayss shee iss stayin with mee. Mee hopes so as this iss THE ferst REEL home an nice Hu’man mee has had inn mee 7+ yeerss on this planet….
Mee iss sendin POTP to yore ‘guy’ an LadyMeow sayss shee will purray fore his Livurr to bee OKay…..
Wee gotta live inn THE moe-mint Mani an love our Hu’manss efurry day! Wee DO keep them grounded; no doubt ’bout that! 😉
***purrsss*** BellaDharma
You’re welcome. It turns out the guy I live with is slightly anemic. It might be because he was radiated so much. Flies are pretty tasty, if you didn’t know. Flurry, the first purebred border collie who lived here, used to be driven crazy by “big buzzy flies”, and if there was one in the bedroom, Cindy would swat it, but Flurry wouldn’t go to sleep unless he saw the body.
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Mew mew mew mee shudd bee like Flurry an dee-mand to see THE carcass fore sure! Mee knowss LadyMeow killed one Fly today butt second one iss still inn here…FISHCAKESS! An mee not eatin Fly Mani…too ucky!
Mee sorry yore ‘guy’ anaemic. LadyMeow asked can hee get B12 shotss to boost his Plateletss an Red Blood Cellss (shee soundss so Nursey rite?)
LadyMeow getss them an they DO help her a lot!
**purrsss** BellaDharma
Thanks; he takes a lot of vitamins because the doctor said to. He kind of thinks the extra calcium he has to take because of the hormone therapy might be having an effect on his red blood cell count but it apparently isn’t that big of a deal. Flies are pretty good, actually. The guy I live with says he won’t try them, though.
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Mee just came inn an freeked out ‘bee-cause there was a fly on mee! LadyMeow iss tryin to calme mee down. They just feel ucky on mee furss…*shuddursss*
Maybee Calcium does mess with Red Blood Cellss….LadyMeow sayss it ISS pawsibbell Mani. Wee just want yore ‘guy’ to bee all rite….
**purrsss** BellaDharma
Thanks. He does go to the doctor all the time, now. Well, every few months. And now he has an excuse not to work in the garden…. I totally hate having flies anywhere near me. At least they don’t sting.
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Maybee yore ‘guy’ just needss a rest from gardenin fore a while till hee getss stronger….
An wee have sum sort of fly or nat here that does ‘bip’….FISHCAKESS!! An do not get mee started on earwiggiess!! Nasty ucky buggiess Mani!!
Well, the guy I live with hasn’t done any real gardening for almost two months now. He gets tired. But that’s okay, because we’re both expert at taking naps. We have earwigs here, too. They are icky. And everywhere.
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UCKY earwigss!!! They are bitey pinchy buggiess an mee does NOT like them!!! **shuddursss**
An mee an LadyMew hope yore ‘guy’ feesls bettur, any amount of bettur so hee can enjoy his garden with you Mani…..
LadyMew just waterss an trimss plantss inn our wee garden an our nayburr’ss. Shee has no energee to do THE buildin garden on our side of sidewalk. Shee sayss nappin with mee iss one of her faverite thingss!!! Mew mew mew…..mee feels THE same ’bout her nappin with mee!
**purrsss** BellaDharma
Napping is really excellent. There are ickier things that earwigs. I just discovered one last night, on the patio. The guy I live with had to come out and help me take care of it.
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Mew mew mew those earwigss reelly are ucky Mani! LadyMew uncovurred large condo yesterday an moved it off brick blockss it sists on…There were earwiggiess efurrywhere!! LadyMew looked like a Mexican Hat dancer stompin all of them…it was furry funny! 😉
They can be icky. Usually one in the bathtub or some other place in the house. The guy I live with is surprised they don’t just cook.
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Earwiggiess are like cockyroachess Mani!! They are inn-dee-structtabell!!!
They are pretty gross.
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That dead, hot air gets to be too much.
We’re nowhere near that but I’m still planning an escape to the North later this week. I like needing to wear a sweatshirt and pants for a few days in August before dong the rest of summer.
It’s been hot here every day for like forever. The last time it wasn’t hot was maybe in May when the forecast called for 100% chance of severe thunderstorms, so hot weather isn’t so bad. It just becomes tiresome. It gives the guy I live with an excuse not to do anything. Like he needs one.
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Hi Mani, I know what you mean about the annoyance of having critters landing on you. I seem to be a magnet for ants when I’m in the garden. They don’t bite but crawl around and explore my arms and legs and feet. No thank you. Do you suppose they’re seeking our body moisture?
Doing nothing can be a good thing sometimes. I enjoy staring at the clouds, your guy stares at the floor. No matter. It’s better than being hyperactive and unable to relax.
Sorry that you have unrelenting heat in Denver. That’ll change before too long so hang in there. Take a break in the canal whenever you can and enjoy the water. In a few months your muskrat friend will be swimming there and then it’ll freeze over and you’ll look and remember the pleasure of a summer dip!
Thanks. I really do hate being landed on. And then there are all these flying things that sting. The guy I live with kept wondering why I would race into my kitchen fort to hide and then he saw that I was hiding from a wasp or hornet. He said not to try them either, because I might get stung. Um, the muskrat….. I know we haven’t mentioned it for a while. I didn’t want to say what had happened. But something did.
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Did he die? I hope not but…..
Yes. The guy I live with said not to say anything, because the muskrat was such a happy feature of the canal. The guy I live with took it pretty hard, actually. People said his wife was the happiest person they had ever known, so he sort of made that connection, the way he does.
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That is a new thing about Cindy. I mean, new thing for me to learn about her.
I am so sorry about your muskrat.
One of our beloved long ago dogs loved to catch and eat grasshoppers, pouncing like a fox or snapping them right out of the air. I guess they were a good protein source. Maybe that would make you more able to tolerate them? Sympathies on the unrelenting heat; August is the worst month here too.
ceci
Thanks. Last August was hot, too, and then we had a hailstorm. Which is very unusual for August, but things are unusual these days. The guy I live with said that maybe some of the purebred border collies who lived here before me liked grasshoppers, but he also said that if I tried them, they might make me a bit jumpy. I didn’t think that was all that funny.
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“Being landed on drives me crazy. So does having things crawl on me” On the bright side, you are not in SE Colorado: “Generally, tarantulas start to show up in big numbers in the La Junta and southeast Colorado area starting in late-August, crawling around the area through early October.”
https://www.kktv.com/content/news/Tarantula-migration-expected-to-crawl-through-Colorado-526446871.html
Yes, the guy I live with said there has been talk about this on Facebook, just like every year. And that if his wife were still living, they would both drive the seven-hour round-trip drive to go look at tarantulas. She would say to bring a cage, and the guy I live with would forget to bring it at the last moment.
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My kind of gal. Would have liked her. We get wolf spiders here. Almost stepped on one carrying her young in the house early one morning last year. She was captured unharmed and moved outside. Good for the karma.
We have bug jars here. The guy I live with escorts the big spiders out into the garage that way.
When I was a kid, a friend lived up on a plateau in a nice neighborhood in San Bruno. there was a vacant space with a few eucalyptus trees nearby. We did not know what it was, but we believed that there was some sort of utility easement through there, with tunnels under the roadways through the neighborhood. They weren’t really tunnels, but there was a big gas pipe that exploded nine years ago, and destroyed the neighborhood. My friend’s parents’ home survived, but the four homes behind it and the home next door did not. Underground tunnels really can be scary.
Yeah. The guy I live with wonders what’s underneath the path, but it might not be anything.
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Or, it could be . . . something.
I hope we don’t find out.
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It could be a pipeline that delivers all the Slurpees to all the 7/11s in all of Colorado! All you would would need to do is get the guy you live with to dig it up and plug a spigot into it!
He says that might be too much sugar.
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He does not need to take ‘all’ of it.
Maybe, I guess.
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