AUGUST HEAT!

It’s Tuesday and I’m staring at the keys wondering what to write about for the Thursday blog. We may ramble a bit over several topics with a variety of photos  

 August Heat: My stars and garters, it is so hot. How hot? You ask. Too hot to take Charley for walks in the middle of the day. He’s down to 2 ½ trips around the block from 4 trips around the block. He misses them. I miss them. But while I could survive walking when it was 104 degrees with a little wind, Charley would probably get sick and he’d burn his little feet. He insists on walking on the curb except for occasional excursions into the grass. The forecast (which I’m pretty sure will be correct) is for 100 + allllll week, hitting 106 come Sunday. Thank God for the AC.  

Because he’s getting less exercise, I’ve mixed his regular food with some light food. He’d put on a bit of weight before I did that, but now he’s svelt again and still gets his regular amount of food.

Charley in his car seat.

We’ve actually had a mild summer so far, though  April was unsually hot, but then the monsoons came in May. June and July stayed in the 90s going down to the mid to high 70s at night. The temp at night is a key to comfort. When it stays in the 80s at night, the mornings aren’t even comfortable. Pity all the folks who make their living working outside—the lawn care, roofers, all construction workers! God bless’em.

Charley at the lake

How do temperatures affect you? Or don’t they. I hate the heat. Much rather be too cold than too hot. The heat makes me mean and nasty. Hate to admit that, but it really does a number on me. Now I’m also forced to confess, the hot weather seems to have a good effect on arthritis. Nice to not be popping Ibuprophen for that all the time and not have the constant pain.

Weight Report: Struggling again. Lost two pounds last week, but gained three. Not going well. Could it be because I’m eating too much? And not the right kinds of foods? Yes. Just like Charley, I’m not getting in as many steps as before the dreadful heat kicked in. Unfortunately, I don’t have someone cutting back on what I eat for me. Finding a medium is very difficult. I can eat very little—like when I was on Nutrisystem—where someone else determined the amounts—but when I’m not doing that, I add in a bit of this and a bit of that. Oh French fries one time won’t hurt. A serving or two of ice cream is okay. How about sweet roles for breakfast? Should be okay, right?

Ha! Of course not! What a deluded fool to buy into that thinking. All food is good, but only in moderation. Can you eat just one potato chip? No neither can I. I do best not to eat any. But we went on vacation and you know how it is on vacation. You make exceptions. I mean it’s a vacation, right? (Of course, the reality is that I lost 2 lbs on vacation because while I was eating differently, I was getting tons of exercise in the cool weather. One day hitting almost 20 thousand steps!)

Now, we’ve been home a couple of weeks. I didn’t change my vacation eating habits and because of the heat, I’m not getting the steps in I need. End result pounds gained.

A couple of times in the morning after taking Charley around the block, I’ve gone back for a turn or two. Trips to the Mall are in my future to get myself back on track. May even go back to eating a few Nutrisystem meals. I still have some of those. But I am getting back on track! Crane sitting on turquoise railing on walkway to the boat dock.

Writing Updates: Since I’m waiting for print publication of TRUTH BE TOLD (to get an error in the cover fixed), I’ve gone back to working on my 7^th book which is the second book in the Second Chances Series, ACT OF TRUST. Hoped to have it out in September, but it probably won’t be until late October. I’ve been going over it doing rewrites and beefing up description. I wrote it really fast. Sometimes I don’t have anything but dialogue. LOL Needs a bit more than that for a really good read. I did catch a major glitch on the timing of events.

You know some books, just make little reference to time and it seems not to make any difference, but maybe because I’m such a linear thinker, that doesn’t work for me. If it takes six weeks to get a play up, then I can’t do it in three weeks. (SECOND ACT and an unpublished book, THE THEATRE, I hope to bring out sometime in 2016 have that issue.) Charts to keep up with story line.

In ACT OF TRUST, we have the reality of 9/11. I began the book in 2014 and that’s the calendar I used. Somehow over time, I wrote down days and/or dates wrong (because that’s really easy for me to do!) and I had things happening in a way they could not because of that date. After hours of work on Monday, I found the glitches and got them fixed. 9/11 fell on a Wednesday that year, the way it was supposed to and allowed for the other actions to follow in a believable fashion.

I think after this last read through and rewrites, I’ll do grammar/spell check and then do the throw-a-way words exercise. That’s when I look at a list of words I tend to use to excess and see if I can “just” delete them or if I can find another way to say what I want. Tedious, but necessary.

No one else has read ACT OF TRUST yet, so I’ll need to find a Beta Reader and I’ve never used on before. Someone who’s willing to read the book to see if the story hangs together. If it makes sense. Not reading for misspellings and missed commas, but the meat of the story. Anyone interested in doing that? Let me know.

I think I’ve well and truly rambled as I promised at the beginning. So what’s your August like? Have you started getting ready for school? Squeezing in one last vacation trip? How do you enjoy the “lazy, hazy days of summer”? Are you a fan of hot weather? Love to hear from you.