It has been waaaay too hot in Lovely LAconia. The porch thermometer has been reading 95 degrees in the later afternoon for several days. What with my allergies to heat and pollen, I have tried to stay inside but have still felt not so good. Nancy wondered whether my allergies were caused or exacerbated by the bunnies. I would say "Probably not" to that, as I have had allergies a lot longer than I have had bunnies. Handling and clipping the critters doesn't affect me. The allergies are made worse, though, by being in the barn with the hay and all the miscellaneous, unknown, ambient particles of floating crap. Pollen affects me; dust and mold, too. That is why I do not clean if I can help it. No, I mean it! I cleaned off the dresser top last week and thought I would die from all the dust I tried not to stir up. Best to just let it lie. I'm thinking about getting professional help. With the cleaning, I mean.
The bunnies are doing fairly well in the heat. Put two fans on them and I rub water on their ears in the heat of the day. Also clipped the face and ear furnishings and feet wool on Caspar, Hippy and Groovy. They are due for full body clipping in 2-3 weeks, and I hope to get them through the heat until then. Four of Kelly Bob's kits are still alive. It is so much easier to lose them when they are so tiny. Used a nesting box this time and I do not like it. I think Kelly Bob trampled the last two to death. Not her fault. I plan to use a drop box for nesting next time.
Wendy asked some while ago what I read during my days on the porch (said days are now history. See heat and pollen above.) I had to shamefacedly admit that I read the mail - mostly catalogs and pleas for money, the weekly newspaper, Science News, SpinOff, Interweave Knits, Fiber Arts. I have let the subscription to the New Yorker lapse from sheer guilt at not reading it but instead looking at the cartoons. Sweetie gets Wired, MacAddict, and Scientific American and sometimes I glance through them. No cartoons.
I used to read and read and read! All the time! Now, not so much. Especially not fiction. Sweetie brought back several books from his visit south (thank you, Shawna.) A Million Little Pieces, Snow Falling on Cedars, Memoirs of a Geisha. Good, timely books that the committee in my head says I should read. Shut Up, you all! So here's where it gets a little funny. Sunday night two lovely gentlemen, Sweetie and I drove the Mercedes to the Gun & Knife Show, aka The Riverbottom Inn, which is down the road a piece in Mauckport. Yes, it's a dive - the usual cinder block building with dim lighting (thank you) and very cold beer. It was Karaoke Night! Woo Hoo! I didn't think it was going to be much fun, not really. But one has a few ice cold beers, and one enjoys or cringes at the singers - or just flat out laughs at them in a good natured way. Slow dance with Sweetie to "Crazy" and watch the drama of the evening unfold. After a bit, I saw the FREE sign on a box by the front door and, of course, I had to see what was in there. Books! Of all the damned things. And the first one I saw was called A Distant Mirror, about 14th century Europe. All right! My kind of stuff. Sweetie said that I was the only person he know that would go to a bar and find a book. (I'm special that way.) So it's a book club edition from the 1970s, but it's well written and non-fiction.
It was a good night after all.
