Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the roastingly hot purebred border collie, here today to tell you just how hot I’ve been, and about some of my adventures. You may remember me from such posts as “A Smoky Day”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose, on a hot and smoky afternoon.
It still hasn’t rained, and none is in the forecast. The guy I live with has been watering a bit, but not enough, he says. 
Even the local residents are hot.
I’ve mostly been lying around, roasting. I’m not sure I’ve ever been this hot for so long.
The sunsets have been pretty spectacular, though. This isn’t a really good picture. 
There are things going on in the garden. A few things, anyway. There’s this little oak seedling:
And some cyclamen. This is Cyclamen fatrense, flowering just about on time. It got a little water last week.
And the big shrubby buckwheat, Eriogonum corymbosum. 
So that’s the non-striped news.
As you no doubt know, I’ve been getting three walks a day, with the third walk some time after 10:30 at night. It isn’t nearly so hot then.
Well, last night, our adventure quickly became a striped one. These aren’t very good pictures but you can see what I mean. See that black spot in the center, way back by the trees?
The striped kitty headed off to the right, to hide behind the trees, I guess.
I wanted to get closer but the guy I live with said no. When we got to the sidewalk we could see where the striped kitty went. I know this is a super blurry picture but you can still see it, trotting down the sidewalk. Imagine walking down the sidewalk and meeting a striped kitty.
So then I wanted to go back, and we did. There are things to check out on the canal road which are more interesting than sidewalk things.
We were walking along the canal road, on the way towards home; the guy I live with had his headlamp on, because we’ve seen more than one striped kitty here, and all of a sudden we saw a pair of glowing eyes coming towards us.
The guy I live with said just to stand where I was, and not do anything, so I didn’t.
The eyes kept coming closer.
Finally they stopped, looked in our direction, and headed off on the path on the south side of the canal, then turned and went on the path we walk on, behind all the houses.
It was a coyote. So of course it went along the coyote path.
But that was pretty scary until we knew what it was.
That’s been the last few days. Hot and smoky. Not much else going on.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
It has been hot and smoky here too. I came to the Santa Clara Valley, and after I got here, the region back home was evacuated. I do not know when I can return. It is smokier in the Santa Clara Valley than I can ever remember it being!
Yeah, we can imagine that. There was a fire here some years ago that was pretty bad. And right now the smoke here is bad, too, especially at night, when we’re trying to cool off the house with fans.
Your species is more sensitive to smoke than my species is.
I think I’m not very, but I am sensitive to heat. The guy I live with keeps saying he’s going to collapse. That’s why midnight walks are so excellent. Though it’s not as cool at night as it normally would be.
In a few months, it will be too cool, and you will not want to go out.
I like cool weather. The guy I live with does too. Cold weather, not so much.
Rhody dislikes cold weather, even though it does not get very cold here. He loses heat fast.
The guy I live with said he’s almost ready for snow.
A blizzard on the fires might be nice about now.
Not very likely, though.
We’ve been reading about how bad it is in California. The fires here are on both sides of the Rockies. We can just barely see the foothills.
Do you ever wonder what they are up to when you can not see them?
Skunks? We can smell what theyâre up to right now. Whew.
No, the foothills. Do you wonder what they are up to when you can not see them. I can not see the mountains from here, and I am now wondering if they are even there.
I’m not sure what this means. We can see the foothills here, sort of.
Ugh. The current CO drought monitor map: https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?CO
Yep. It’s pretty crispy here.
Do you get fires in the ‘hood?
No, fortunately, though the guy I live with said that there was this one time when someone started a fire on the slope of the little mesa to the south of us, with fireworks.
Coyote!?!?!?!?!? EEKKKKK!!! Mani are you an yore Guy OKay??? Wee have a seereuss FEER of Coyotess up here. They will come innto poppylated areass an snatch small doggiess an catss an iss allwayss a bad endin fore THE 4 legged cott bye Coyote.
**shuddurss**
An it soundss like there are alot of stripey kittiess there…
Pierre our ressydent Skunk-kitty has been ’round here too. LadyMew even left blueberriess out fore him an hee eated them an DID NOT spray our garden! Mew mew mew….
Mee can emagin how dry it iss there. Wee follow mewss ’bout yore firess an Callyfornia firess an firess inn British Columbia (western Catnada) an even way up North at Red Lake inn our Province Ontario!!! So much fire an smoke….it iss scarey!
Pleese bee safe Mani an Mistur Guy.
***purrss*** an **nose rubss** BellaDharma an LadyMew too
Thanks. We see coyotes pretty often, though more in the cooler months.
It’s really, really dry here.
Mani an Mistur Guy wee purrayin THE firess nevurr get close to youss’! Wee see on Tee V mewss how dry it is an THE firess an wee scared!
Wee have been watchin Condor Bird Camss inn Callyfornia an cammyra cordss melted an wee have no way of knowin if Iniko an THE other Condor young oness are still alive…iss so furry sad….
An mee terryfyed of Coyotess! They used to chase mee when mee was on meen streetss of Wireton!! Yeah they wuud come inn to town!!!! REELLY scary!!!!
I guess that would be scary. They don’t chase me, because I’m tough.
We had to run a gauntlet of striped kitties last night. They were very close and there was nowhere else to go.
But we made it.
EEEKKK The Striped Kitty Gauntlet iss no fun!! Yore both so furry brave Mani an Mistur Guy!! Well dun!!
I agree. I am super brave. Sometimes.
Mew mew mew mee iss sue-purr brave with LadyMew bye mee side Mani 😉
Just like I amâ¦
Mew mew mew wee are THE bravest Mani 😉
We are. Super brave.
Que THE superman theme rite Mani??? 😉
I think so.
Mew mew mew mee too!! 😉
Yep. I was even brave on my walk just now.
Rite on Mani!!! Mee mew (knew) you cuud bee brave!! Well dun!
**purrss** BellaDharma
Thanks. Very brave.
APAWSS APAWSS Mani 😉
Yep.
LOL at Tony’s suspicions that foothills & mountains get up to things when made invisible by smoke, fog, etc! Maybe out west, where your elevations are young and frisky, geologically speaking. Here the tired, dumpy Appalachians & Blue Ridge, like us human geezers, pretty.much take one day like another, whether on view or screened.
The obverse of occasionally obscure mountains is the dramatic phenomenon that I experienced in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s: the San Gabriel mountains, made completely invisible by smog for 51 weeks in the year, suddenly appeared in their blue & white glory, loomng over the crest.of Broadway St. in a sparking clear sky after a winter storm of just the right kind. I gasped and almost burst into tears when I saw them the first time, from the unexpected dose of beauty, from mountain longing, and from the sadness of realizing what had been keeping them from us most of the time.
The guy I live with lived in Los Angeles, but in the 1950s, and the smog wasn’t so bad. They talked about it, though.
I guess it would be kind of like those rare days when the neighborhood doesn’t reek of perfume, and everything smells fresh and clean. On some summer evenings we could smell ponderosas and stuff from up in the mountains.
Hero dog theme: http://www.melaman2.com/cartoons/singles/mp3/underdog.mp3