I hesitate to make another post so soon, since I have had only two comments on my last one.  Apparently fewer people find humor in thigh woes than I had anticipated.  Either that or my readership is way down from my earlier estimated high of two or three.  I need to market myself a little better, I suppose.  I wonder what it would cost to take out an ad during late-night M*A*S*H reruns?...

Well, this post won't help any, because it is, quite frankly, rather boring.  I'm posting it anyway.

It is really, really, really, really HOT these days.  Daily temps have been in the 90s all weeks, some days as high as 98, and there's not much relief in sight.  It is too hot to do ANYTHING.

And dry.  We have been rain-deficient literally for MONTHS.  This is true of West Michigan in general, and of my locale in particular.  Since mid-May, we have averaged less than an inch of rain per month.  LESS THAN AN INCH, people.

And of course, when you have 2-1/2 acres of lawn, you don't water.  (Well, unless you're our next-door neighbors with the underground sprinkling, that is.  But nobody else around here waters the lawn.)

Remember all those blizzard pics I posted back in April?  (If not, you can see a few of them on my bottom slide show in the sidebar.)  Well, here's what my lovely yard looks like these days:

Front Yard-- you can see the green grass around the area where the sprinkler is watering the flowers, but that's about it.

Back Yard.  Yes, I know the pond is scummy.  REALLY scummy.  Algae grows better than grass, OK?

Actually, both yards look better than they did a few weeks ago when we had 14-inch tall brown weeds dotting the landscape.  Of course the weeds grow even though the grass doesn't.  After we finally had some substantial rain three weeks ago, Biz got on the lawnmower and mowed them all down.

(Considering that, besides helping with dishes, mowing the lawn is the only regular task we have given to Biz this summer, I'd say he has gotten off really easy this year.  Well, I have tried to make up for it a little by asking him to cut down the "giant pricklies" that plague our lawn & gardens as well and can grow several feet tall.  However, every time I hint that I might ask him to do yet something else around here, he brings up that pesky car incident...)

As unbearably hot as the days have been, nights are still surprisingly cool.  By about 8:30 pm, it is usually cool enough that we can enjoy a game of frisbee golf or ladderball in the front yard in the hour or so before the sun sets.  I've even been known to throw on a light jacket on such occasions.  But daytime?  I get a headache from the sun & heat just being out for a few minutes to water veggies or hang out laundry.

Well, I'm sure my blogger friends from points far south are tired of listening to me whine, so I'll stop now and mention that I am ever-so-grateful for central air conditioning!  When we were house-hunting two years ago, "central air" was not at the top of my list of desired features, falling for example somewhere below "fireplace" and "deck".  When we bought this house, I considered the air merely a bonus.  Boy, am I glad we have it!  Life these days would be so much more miserable without.

And that's the weather report for now.  Stay tuned for snow pics coming as early as October.