Stinking hot...

I feel like broccoli.

It is so steamy outside that just opening the door is exhausting, enervating, and altogether devastating for me.  Unfortunately, it is going to be like this for another week or so.  SIGH.

Firewood Man came and hung the laundry line for me today!!  Isn't it most lovely??  It is GREEN!  And it practically disappears!  I am very pleased with how it turned out, especially since it cost me a mere $16.18.

This is my turnbuckle.  [I have yet to stop enjoying saying the word "turnbuckle."]  Firewood Man hung the laundry line and then promptly took it down so that I could learn how to do so.  It is much easier than I thought.  The best part of the turnbuckle is that if I mistakenly muck about with it so badly that both ends come out, they can only go back in one way.

I like the view of the back yard ever so much from my "new" back porch, that I had Tim hang just one of the two lines that were there originally.  We ran it from the upper hook in the garage to the corner post of the porch, but only at the height of the railing.  So, if you sit on the porch, the laundry line is below your line of sight.  At the porch end, the line is still above my head.  I am sure that not having a second line will mean a slower process for drying, but I think it will be just fine.  Once the weather turns, I will be doing a load of laundry just to admire my new line!

Although it is STINKING HOT, I needed to go out in the next couple of days to get another batch of probiotics.  Meijer's has the best pricing and periodically runs a buy-one-get-one-half-off sale, which is a savings of $17.98.  Target had already texted and called twice about prescriptions, so I decided to leverage the laundry line giddiness into errand productivity.  I hedged my bet by dragging Mary along on my errands via Sprint.

What a gracious, merciful woman!

While I have a Walmart Savings Catcher rebate gift card to use, I really did not wish to make a third stop.  So, I got the carrots, lettuce, milk, and bananas I needed at Target.  Target did have this sale that gave you a free gallon of milk for buying three boxes of Cheerios, which are all $1 off, so really you are paying for two boxes of Cheerios to get three of them and a gallon of milk.  I like those kind of sales, even if my basement food stash looks like I am housing an orphanage or something.

I wore my braids and bandana and ... well ... my very, very, very best men's lounge pants.  Seriously, they practically look like linen slacks.  If you blurred your eyes a bit or merely glance at them quickly.  I also wore my new ... anxiety medical assist device.

You see, I thought I should try and work on managing my anxiety better during appointments and went searching for a large frog ring to give me amphibian courage.  I finally found what I wanted from Belarus.  I figured now that I am middle-aged, I am old enough to wear ginormous, weird rings on odd fingers.  I will admit that I got the size wrong and it was much cheaper to buy a second ring than to have the first one sized.  However, I listed the first one on Craigslist and have had several calls about it.  The ring is sterling silver and was $16.07.  Not too bad for an anxiety medical assist device???

I was a bit worried that I got the size on my second ring wrong, too, until I finally thought to put it on my right hand.  I had been going by the ring finger size (enlarging that) on my right hand, not my left.  While I think I would have liked it to be on my left hand, the ring fits well on the first finger of my right hand.  So, for example, today when I was signing for my purchases, I was greeted by the sight of the frog each time.  I like my frog ring.  Immensely!

The last bit of visual courage I wore was the only graduation gift (that I did not buy for myself) that I received after earning my Ph.D..  My doctorate is in literacy studies and my dissertation was a reading engagement study that involved modern high fantasy.  The present is a silver necklace that is comprised of three rings (three being the quintessential number in fantasy), with the middle ring engraved with the word "fantasy."  The chain is 30 inches long and I oft fiddle with the rings whilst waiting.  Between the rings and the frog and my braids, I have some serious visual girding about my person.  Since I wear flowy skirts and my boots (more external courage) to my appointments, with the new frog ring and Becky's weighted lap pad, my next medical appointment really ought to be a walk in the park for me, don't you think??

Meanwhile, my broccoli status is now "overcooked."  That was lots of being out in the STINKING HOT weather, so steamy that my glasses fogged up leaving the house and the car.  Another week and we should have a break in this weather.  Given that I have plenty of milk in the house and my innards have reached new heights in making my body miserable, I plan on going nowhere and accomplishing nothing ... except maybe some extra snuggling with my Fluffernutter!