the knee, the ants, and the soul crushing heat

Knee report: still a little swollen, still yellowish green from knee to ankle, still tender to the touch, still have a lump where there shouldn't be one, still does not pain me to walk or bend though it burns a little below the kneecap in the mornings. So later I will go to the online patient portal and send a message to my PC doc explaining with pictures and asking if I need an x-ray.

It has been so hot this past week, mid to high 90˚s with a hot dry wind from the south and getting worse. The next seven days 98˚ – 103˚, mid August temps and it's still just June. Rain is predicted for those same seven days so fingers crossed we'll actually get some because I've been spending my days moving the sprinkler around and it's nearly impossible to keep the things in pots from going into heavy droop every day.

So, with the knee and the heat we've been watching more TV in the afternoons. Currently we're streaming the Last Man On Earth on Hulu, a post-apocalyptic comedy about a virus that killed off the entire human population except him and he drives around the US with a loud speaker putting up signs that say 'alive in Tucson'. Two years later a woman shows up, a week later so does another one. We're only 4 episodes into the first season and there are four seasons. The other show we're watching is The Flight Attendant on Max, a murder thriller about an alcoholic flight attendant who wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, next to a dead man and has no idea what happened. We're 3 episodes into the first of 2 seasons.

The double orange daylilies are done, well, all but a few of the daylilies are done, the elephant garlic allium has gone to seed so I cut them down, the clasping leaved coneflower had also gone to seed so I pulled it out. The zinnias are still blooming. I've been collecting the gone by flowers for next years seeds and omg, I've already got far more than I collected all of last summer.

Here it is the middle of June and I have not so much as gone over to the studio and tidied up after completing and shipping out the last piece I have made of pate de verre cast glass last September and I currently have no desire to go over there and do that or think about new work. Part of that is because I still don't have water over there from last winter's deep freeze that cracked the outside pipe (even though it was wrapped) that brings water into the shop. My first attempt to seal it with FlexSeal paste didn't do the job. I had thought I would apply more but haven't and right now it's heat stroke hot out there (real feel 107˚), hot enough that I will let it be instead of asking Rocky to attend to it. And without water over there there isn't much I can do. I could do some model making but no functioning toilet because no water so I'd either have to pee behind the shop (which I have done many times), run to my sister's house or run home. So once again I wonder if I am completely done with making sculpture out of glass. It doesn't help that my cold working equipment is old and failing and expensive to replace.

Here's the other thing I've been doing...trying to find and seal up where the ants are getting in. Sealed up the pantry and three days later ants were in the dry dog food bowl. Thought they were coming in from under the metal threshold in the doorway between the kitchen and dining area so I pried that up, caulked every crack that even maybe looked like ants could somehow get in from, nailed the threshold strip back down and was good...for two days. This morning they were not only back in the dog food but back in the kitchen cabinet where we keep the oils, vinegars, spices, and baking stuff (I've sealed cracks in there about three other times). So I think I've identified where they are getting into the cabinet this time, way back in the far very hard to reach corner. I can only surmise that ants are teeming inside the walls of this house.

So, yeah, I'm going to caulk the cabinet and then settle down for more streaming.