After a breakfast at Troy’s, Christopher got to open his gift (download QT movie of the event). He’s a happy guy and I figure I’ll see him at dinner–only because his friend Mike is coming over and I’m making lamb shanks–then not again for a few days while he learns everything he can about it.

The earth keeps moving around here. Not big, but frequent, as you can see on this site. It’s freaking me out a bit.

In other news, the pool has been repaired and, except for some cosmetic stuff (like grass), it looks much better and is definitely drier. I’d take a picture but I’m lazy today. Our neighbors (the nice ones west of us) thanked us with some sparkling wine on our stoop this morning–they’re happy to have a dry yard now.

On the other side, our heavy-drinking and pot-smoking neighbor (east of us) has threatened another lady in our area. This guy is just nuts. C and I have a deal that if C goes over there (to complain about the noise, for example) and the idiot takes a poke at him, he won’t hit back. This crazy bastard is the kind of guy who picks on others and then sues the first time someone gives him some of his own. I know this will be hard for C who generally loathes bullies and who has a special place in his distaste for men who threaten women, but better to avoid the potential lawsuit.

So, it’s been hotter than Satan’s ass here, but at least we’ve had the pool to cool off in, right? Not anymore. The pool has a leak which is now being repaired. Big mess. Unfortunately, that means no swimming until it’s done (hopefully by the end of the week). We have still been dunking ourselves in the shallow end, just to cool off, and as long as there’s no sign of growing algae or whatever, we’ll still probably do that from time to time.

The problem, it seems, is that the skimmer was leaking. Our kind neighbors have been getting flooded (they’re downhill a smidge) and we’ve been seeking the cause. The cement from the pool to the fence had been heaved at strange angles since before we moved in, but the water issue didn’t get bad until fairly recently. Here’s what our yard now looks like.

The bigger problem is that our landlord (not the management co., the owner) is a parsimonious jerk who won’t spend a dime to save a dollar in the long run if a nickel will get him by for today. So yesterday we had the joy of supervising (probably) illegal workers, with my lousy spoken Spanish (C has none), who removed the bad cement and dug out the needed trench and today the owner balked at making the needed repairs, trying to get the management company to “just silicon it” or something. Yarg. Luckily, the pool guy said he absolutely would not do a half-assed job. Good for him!

So, we’re hot and bitchy and they can’t make the repairs tomorrow because the city is resurfacing our street tomorrow and no traffic or water is permitted. That means, if it all works right, Thursday the pool guy comes, and hopefully cement on Friday; and the national tragedy of our pool will end.

*****

Oh, and to add insult to injury, there have been 3 small earthquakes in the past week and I got stung by a bee yesterday.

I pity the poor schmuck who next cuts me off in traffic.

There is no global warming. Yeah, yeah..sure, sure. Our Decider has told us so.

Of course, he hasn’t been in my back yard lately. The stormy stuff I wrote about the other day? More and more of that. We got a few drops of rain from this sky (two evenings ago, and yes, just a few drops, not even enough to fully wet the cement), yesterday was hot and (relatively) humid with more storms visible to the east, and today is officially hotter than hell.

Seriously. Hot. And humid (for here, at least). Look at this evidence: Here’s a snap of a keyring thermometer in the shade, and another in the sun. Yes, that’s 115 in the sun. And yes, that’s not the most accurate thermometer in the world, but the weather channel says it’s 94 officially at the near-ish small airport, and when you add the intensity of the sun to that, it’s too damn hot.

I’m writing this in my still slightly damp bathing suit, and when I’m done posting it, I’ll get back in the pool. It’s the only way to stay cool: in the pool, cool off, get out, watch some baseball in the damp suit, get too warm again, get back in pool, repeat. And you know it’s too hot outside when an 87ºF pool feels shockingly cool.