Surviving the whirlwind. 🌪️

I was up at 6:30 am, which makes for a long day.
I can remember a time, though, when that was just my normal wake-up time.
I got the kids grown up. 
I got older. 
And I got a lot lazier.
Now I'm up around 8 am.

With Cowboy on this new darn shift, though, I may need to get back in the habit of waking up at 6:30 am.
The time he gets home changes so much.
Today it was 4 am when he got home. 
One day it was 5 am. 
I think it was 5:30 am one day.
I'm a tosser and a turner, so he can't get any rest when I'm in bed with him.

Heron had an early shift today.
He left for work at 7:15 am.

I think he and I woke Badger up. 
She tried to ignore us but finally she rolled out of bed at 8 am.

Before Heron went to work, he told us it was cool enough that he didn’t turn on the air conditioner for the RV cats. 

Duffy still had to pee anyway, so we killed two birds with one stone.
Duff got to go potty, and Badger turned the air conditioner on before the day heated up.

It’s just common sense, when you live essentially in a tin box in the summer, it’s going to get hot inside. When you’ve got cats living in that hot box, they need to be kept cool.

Yeah, mornings are cool, but come noon it starts heating up. 
Well, Badger and I made sure his cats are kept at a comfortable temperature.

We came back inside. 
Badger got a load of her laundry going and found herself some breakfast.

I plopped myself down at the computer. 
First thing in the morning I usually go through the security cameras. 
There’s never anything there, but I do get to see the night-life outside. 
The raccoon is very active.

I started waking Cowboy up at 10 am. 
He had an alarm set, but he’s really good at ignoring them.

I turn our middle light on and open all the curtains. 
My bedroom has three windows, so he gets some good sunlight.

I think that slowly makes his body realize: hey, it’s not night, it’s day, ya nut, get out of bed.

He finally managed to make it out of bed and eat breakfast a little after 10 30 am. Six hours of sleep when you're twenty or thirty years old is no big deal, but when you're 66 years old, it's a bit rough.

We got on the road around 11 am, which was a lot later than Cowboy wanted, but one can only push oneself so far, and Cowboy is pushing himself as far as he can go.

We made it back at 1:30 pm, so that really wasn’t too bad.
On the old shift that wouldn’t have been terrible, but not this new shift.

We got the groceries unloaded and dinner eaten.
Badger and I went to watch TV in my room while Cowboy headed outside to take care of his chickens.

Cowboy came in for his nap, so Badger and I headed outside. 
She has things she works on in the she-shed, and I sit reading in the swing.

We finally got a little too warm.

We came inside. Badger headed to her room, and I plopped down on the computer.

I was on the computer when I saw I had a notice on my Facebook post.
 I caused a bit of a stir about my fireworks post.
The church's preacher even left a comment.

I told him I'm not against his youth having a blast with explosives. 
Well, okay, not those exact words.
It would’ve just been really nice if there had been a heads-up, like “the youth are having a fireworks demonstration today, just be aware.”

We shoot fireworks off ourselves, so I’m not against them. 
But if they’re going to be going off steadily for at least a half hour in broad daylight where you can’t even see them, a heads-up would be common courtesy.

We got Cowboy off to work.
He's leaving later and later every day.

My new solar lights came. 
They're bee firefly hybrids, and the description didn't say they had different modes.

Badger and I went outside and wrapped them around the cow windmill.

I'll jump ahead to after dark. 
They lit up, and they were surprisingly bright, but the mode button doesn't seem to work. 
So we have this bright strand of lights that dances. 
Sometimes they'll be so fast they make you seasick, then they'll slow down so much you think they died.

Hopefully they'll survive the summer.

Badger and I took our walk at 8 pm.
On the way home, we were halfway down the wooded path when we saw Heron leaving. 
I looked at Badger and said, “Oh crap, I didn’t bring my phone or my keys with me. I hope he didn’t lock the front door.”

Yep, sure enough, we got up the hill, went to try to open the front door, and it was locked. 
Luckily Cowboy had hidden a spare key, although I told Badger I sure hoped it was the right one. 
It seemed like we’d changed locks. 
Thank heavens, it was still the right key.

We got ourselves inside. 
Badger started feeling bad so she lay down on the couch, and we turned the TV on. 
I plopped down on my computer.

Heron eventually got back. 
Earlier he had texted that he had gone to the store to buy bleach so he could clean his air conditioning unit. He was washing his air conditioner something, I don’t know what, in my bathtub. 
He spilled almost a full gallon jug of bleach on my bathroom floor.

My bathroom has no windows and no ventilation. 
He came out, his face was bright red, and his eyes were streaming tears. 
The smell of bleach was so strong.

I had Badger open the only window that opens in this house. 
I have only one window in this entire house that is capable of being opened. 
We opened the front door.
We locked the cats in the laundry room with a fan going, turned on every fan we could find, turned the air purifiers on, grabbed Duffy, and headed outside.

We stayed outside until almost 10 pm.
The smell wasn't as strong as it was when we came back inside, but we've left the window and door open the rest of the evening. I don't like to do that anymore, not with all these new faces we're seeing around, but sometimes it can't be helped.

When Cowboy called this evening, I was complaining about it to him. 
He said, “Well why didn’t he do that outside with the garden hose.”

Um, I guess it just didn’t occur to him, and I wasn’t here when he plopped it in my bathtub.

All I know is that his air conditioner in the RV started smelling moldy, so he’s taken it apart and is giving it a thorough clean.

In my bathtub.

I guess I can look at it as my bathroom floor is totally sanitized, it’s so full of bleach.

Let’s hope the air in the rest of the house clears out by the time Cowboy gets home from work.

So yeah, I’m heading to my bedroom.

The air in there is a tad bit fresher.