random

I woke up this morning, and read a book on the couch until noon. What a perfect Saturday morning.

I thought it was starting to cool off, so yesterday I got up to go hiking and instead of leaving right away, I got caught up with a task that needed to get done and didn't get to the trailhead until 9. Miserable Hot! When will summer ever end?? In the afternoon, I had to add some fluids to the car and thought I'd get a sunburn on the back of my neck for the 5 minutes I was outside.

All during August, I was hiking at the crack of dawn to avoid the heat. I say that like I was hiking every day all month. Actually, once or twice a week I was hiking at the crack of dawn. I had to alter my routes on Saturdays though. When you drive into the Squaw Peak Park area at 5:30, it is this dark:

Seriously, the sky is just beginning to lighten up, the trails are still dark. And if you don't HURRY, you won't get a parking spot. It gets totally full on weekends and holidays mornings. Crazy. So I head to some other trails with less parking issues on Saturdays. I am so glad there are multiple hiking trails within 15 minutes of my house.

Today, I waited until 6:15 pm to go hiking. I wasn't expecting it to be almost totally dark by seven. It was a rush back to the car with my flashlight. But before it got dark, I saw some sort of desert crop circle. I'm not sure what that is about.

I also noticed that the city is posting a construction sign. I'm not sure who chooses the wording, but I wouldn't call a dirt/gravel hiking trail a road, and I can't imagine what kind of construction will be going on in the desert for over a month. I'm curious now.

We didn't receive any business money this week. Actually, it's been almost 2 weeks without any significant income.  Our income is mostly steady, but it is based on doing work and sending out invoices and hoping our customers pay on a timely basis. We rarely have a gap in our income, but this week it is especially noticeable because it has been a couple of the most grueling, pressure filled weeks we've ever had in our business and it would have been nice to have money to go along with the hard labor. Maybe October will be a more relaxing month with the money flowing in freely. (I always hope for freely flowing money, but it never seems to happen.)

Roxanne gave me a Kindle for my birthday. She apologized that it was an older version, second hand device, but I looked at the menu and was excited that the previous owner had a similar taste in books. Yay! I'm going to start reading 'Le Miserable'.

I walked out the door tonight and Rachel was working on the engine of her car. I asked her what she was doing and she said her car is still overheating and she was changing out the thermostat. Seriously? My beautiful piano-playing daughter knows how to overhaul the cooling system of her car? She's amazing.

This morning, Brady and Dave hauled off some scrap metal we ended up with from our business and came home with $200 fun money. (Well, Dave's half is fun money, Brady is saving every penny that comes his way). They had some metal from some old backflow devices that Dave replaced. The scrap metal place won't accept metal from backflow units. Backflows on business properties get stolen on a regular basis and sold for the value of the brass. Isn't that crazy? Metal units that keep the water safe are being yanked out of the ground and sold for a few dollars of scrap? So they stopped accepting them. But an old backflow unit from our company that actually repairs and replaces them? . . we can't get rid of them.

Survivor started this week. I almost forgot until I got a text about it from Robyn. I love being excited about shows with my friends.  I'm a little embarrassed at my family calendar. It lists when Survivor starts, when Amazing Race starts, and when Modern Family starts. Even with it listed on my calendar, I had forgotten so  I was glad for the reminder. It should be a good season.

Our TIVO or cable box is broken right now. We can set it up for shows to record, but the TV won't change the channel. If I'm leaving for the evening, I have to make sure the TV is on the right channel before I leave. Otherwise the menu will say I've recorded Project Runway, but it has actually recorded the weather channel.    Dave and I are both too busy (or lazy) to investigate what is wrong with our system. I will be embarrassed if it is just a cord that has come loose in the back and we've let it go for a month.

Well, that's a random list, but that's our life right now.