Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the roastingly hot purebred border collie, here to bring you up to date on how hot it’s been. You may remember me from such posts as “How To Avoid Gardening”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
This shows me napping on the cool back patio, about eleven o’clock at night. Very pleasant. I think that ramp might need to be replaced some time soon, too. I’ve probably said that the guy I live with’s wife built it for Flurry, the first purebred border collie who lived here, when he was very old and creaky.
Kind of like the guy I live with.
He tried to do some work in the front yard yesterday, and of course hurt his hip again, so I guess that’s that, for a while.
It’s been hot. Really hot; the air is filled with smoke. The guy I live with said that Denver had the worst air quality of any major city some day within the last week.
So aside from that brief painful excursion, almost no gardening has been done except to remove the oriole feeders (the orioles seem to have left, and the feeders were attracting dozens of bald-faced hornets), and water the few new plants around the garden.
Sometimes I sit at the front door and monitor flying things, like yellowjackets.
As you can see, this beat-up tacky aluminum screen door has no actual screen. The guy I live with said that Flurry ripped it with his toenails one day. Like a lot of things around here, it isn’t a matter of spending money to get the screen door replaced, it’s just a low priority.
I’ve been enjoying my walks, though, especially in the evening. The walk along the creek, on either side, is nice because the air is at least ten degrees cooler.
This is me by the creepy willow. You can see how green the grass is there, too. It doesn’t take much rain for water to run in the creek, and when it does, the grass I’m standing on gets flooded. The creek comes from the mountains, which is why there can be a lot of water in it, even if we don’t get much rain.
Kind of scary the way the willow hangs over the path. Or what used to be a path.
And then just yesterday evening, there was that thing in the grass again. We could see the grass moving, and hear noises.
I really wanted to wade into the grass and check it out, but the guy I live with said no.
That’s really all I have for today. It’s been hot, and smoky, and nothing much has been going on, but we wanted to make a post to show we’re still here.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Good news, mani
We are still here, though the guy I live with hurt his back again just this morning. You should have heard the complaints.
(I do know that he’s an expert on hurting his back, and has been ever since he worked for the phone co., but still.)
I guess it’s going to be a slow weekend here.
Smoky is no fun. It got so smoky here last year that the street lights came on. After that, we had to evacuate for the CZU Fire, but it was not as smoky then. I suppose all that smoke turned on streetlamps somewhere else. I was told that canine people are more sensitive to smoke than human people are. Rhody and I left before the evacuation last year, and could not return for Darla. (The evacuation happened while we were already in San Jose, and we were stranded there.) Someone here tried to take her to Santa Cruz, but could not get her into a carrier. Fortunately, she was fine, and the fire did not get this far. She is neither a canine person nor a human person, but is a feline person. A carrier probably would not have been a good idea for a human person.
The fires are icky, and scary too. I think we’re not going to have so much smoke today. I heard that it rained in parts of Denver, east of us. Nothing happened here.
Snow would be nice too, but that’s a stretch.
First snow ever here was the third of September, in 1961. It snowed here last September. We’re both very tired of almost constant hot weather.
So, snow does not happen regularly every winter? I think of snow as common in Colorado, as if all of Colorado has similar weather. How many times has it snowed there since 1961? DId you know that Los Angeles gets more snow than the main part of San Jose?
It does snow, but it rarely lasts on the ground for any length of time. Last winter it was five months. Not terribly cold, but not warm, either. Those periods of warm days in January and February seem to be long gone.
Privet, who was a mixed terrier prior to Rhody and Bill, disliked snow. I thought that all canine people liked to frolic in it. Unfortunately, his legs were shorter than the snow was deep, so his uninsulated underside landed right onto the snow. Of course, he did not like that. I needed to wrap him in a towel to dry and warm him.
I like snow a lot. I get dried off with a towel, too. The guy I live with said he thinks it’s always going to be hot, though.
Well, not always; just until autumn or winter.
Uh huh.
Good Morning to you Mani and to the guy you live with. The heat and the smoky conditions you describe are beyond my imagination almost as we never experience anything so extreme here. We had a period of hot weather recently where the temperature reached 28C (82.4F) and for us this was almost unbearable. I certainly had to retreat indoors on some days as I felt so very tired from working in the garden. I think late evening/early night walks down by the creek are the best way to go for the immediate future and, who knows, the mysterious mover in the grass may reveal itself. I look forward to hearing all about that!
It’s only 24C here right now, at quarter to one in the afternoon. You would think that would cause a lot of activity in the garden, but no. The guy I live with said that when humans started to walk upright, they forgot about their backs. Fortunately there is a new tube of BenGay, though I really don’t like the way that smells.
The guy I live with said that since finding gardening assistants seems to be difficult, he’s thinking about “helper monkeys”. (He’s been watching “The Simpsons” in the morning.) I definitely don’t like the sound of that.
Ah, the body gives trouble as the years pass!
No kidding. You should hear some of the language I hear.
Meow Mani an Guy! It iss wunderfull to reed yore post. Wee were wunderin how youss’ were doing?! Wee sorry it iss still so *HOT* an smokey there!
Wee have alot of **heet** an hue-midity an that iss bad enuff. Yore smoke issue must bee UCKY!
Wee reeched over 100 deegreess with hue-midity on Wednesday an even with 3 fanss wee had breethin trubbell two.
Wee sit out closer to suppurr inn shade…
An what iss with THE stinging beess an hornetss an waspss?!?! They dive bomm mee sum timess! 😦
Mee an LadyMew dun with this UCKY sticky stinkin Summer….bring on Autuum wee meow!
Bee safe Mani….And Guy wee hope yore hip settless down soon.
***purrss*** BellaDharma an ((huggiess)) LadyMew
Pee S: Have youss’ seen any Hootey Owlss latelee?
We see owls almost every evening, but yesterday I wanted to go a different way. No owls there.
The guy I live with’s hip hurts, and his back too. I guess because he still thinks he’s a young person who can do anything.
The oriole feeders are gone now, but there are still yellowjackets, and now European paper wasps are building a nest on the other side of the downstairs bedroom window. There’s a ripped screen on the outside. The guy I live with said someone or something tried to break through there years ago (not knowing there were deadly border collies on the other side of the window).
I guess we’re both ready for cooler weather, and fewer stinging things that fly.
Of coarse Mani…..mee furgot Owlss have their own terrytory!
Wee sorry THE Orioless left an that you have Yellowjackitss! They terryfy mee an LadyMew!
EEEKKKK you have Papurr Waspss two?? This iss too much! Can Guy make a pretend nest outta a brown papurr bag an put it up…no wait…that wuud put him close to THEM!
Mee thinkss Guy shuud call Xterminatur an have Purrfessionalss take all THE ‘inntruderss’ away!! **shudderss**
An who wuud bee silly enuff to try an brake inn with deadlee Border Colliess livin there??
Mee AGREESS no more stining bitin stew-pid flyin buggiess an kewler tempss pleese!
It’s still hot here, but eventually it’ll be cooler and all the flying stinging things will go away.
The guy I live with said he’s very tired of all this hot weather.
You an Guy are REEL true-purrss livin inn such a *hot* place. LadyMew wuud due bettur at THE North Pole mee thinkss. Shee can not handle heet an hue-midity; it makess her sore an grouchy!
Then again shee iss sore an grouchy most of THE time, mew mew mew……
The guy I live with is mostly unhappy all the time. I can tell. He very often doesn’t feel so well (though he went to the doctor, who told him to get knee-length compression socks, and those have helped with his legs swelling). He goes to the doctor again this week.
The heat is getting to both of us, and the smell from next door gets to him almost every day.
But he got a bag of potato chips yesterday, and he liked those. Late July is what they’re called. Even in August.
30C today; 20 percent humidity, and cloudy. The guy I live with’s least favorite weather, besides arctic.
Man oh man Mani an Guy wee were hopin THE smell from next door had left….guess what wee smell outside here?? Skunky Weed! It iss so gross LadyMew allmost threw up on THE lawn a few timess! An inn hot **HEET** it seemss even werse!
Mee understandss ’bout Guy beein sad or grumpy alot; so iss LadyMew. Her bone pain cuppulled with Arthritis iss so seevere there are nitess shee does not play toyss with mee. An sumtimess shee just goes to bed an not even meowss a werd.
Those sockss sound guud….mee goin to meow to LadyMew ’bout them. Maybee they wuud helpss with her leg painss? Mind you shee wearss Knee Stabilizer bracess most of THE time. Wee gotta stick bye our Hu’manss Mani! They need us ALOT! 😉
They do need us.
The socks help a lot, I guess, though the guy I live with says that wearing them when it’s so hot every day is not hugely comfortable.
Hot and smoky here today.
Hang in there Mani. Someone called these the dog days of August and I’m pretty sure it means we should just follow your lead, and get plenty of patio naps and evening walks in but little else. There will be plenty of time for the garden once things cool down… or winter rolls around… or 2022 kicks in 😉
The one thing we don’t have here is humidity. Right now, at 6:45 p.m., it’s 88 degrees, and 18 percent humidity. The humidity does go up in the evening, at least a little.
So that helps make the heat at least a little bearable.
Late night naps on the cool concrete are pretty pleasant.
Soon this horrible summer will be over and the cooler temperatures of Fall will be here. Hang in there Mani. If it’s any consolation both of my cats have been locked in the garage for the last few days due to heavy smoke and very poor air quality. They are not impressed though they do get to see out through the attached greenhouse.
I certainly hope so. I’m very tired of roasting every single day. The guy I live with said it might rain today, though he doubts it, but then we’re back to smoke for the beginning of next week.
Our air quality index got up to 151 the other day, if that means anything.