Heating

The back lawn's green patches shrink a bit every day. In another month, unless there is rain, it will be as brown as the front lawn. I keep watering the green patches, hoping to forestall the spread of the Bermuda grass, which is the stuff that stays brown all summer regardless of how much water it gets. It likes to invade the dry areas first, but will slowly take over even the watered parts of the yard. Eventually there will be nothing but Bermuda grass and opportunistic weeds in this yard.

That's what I'll have for the remainder of the time I live here, as I have neither the means nor the energy to replace the lawns. If this place had Southern California's climate I could just put in some patches of dichondra, and they would gradually push even the Bermuda grass out. But dichondra can't thrive in a place with cold winters. I miss Los Angeles.

There was a faint smell of smoke in the air early this morning, but it dissipated by nine o'clock and hasn't returned. Another day of escape. The entire region is now on a fire watch advisory because another hot week is on the way and could bring thunderstorms. Storms or not, I'll probably have to go back to running the air conditioner this weekend. I need to wash the filter to morrow. I haven't looked at it lately, but it's probably filthy since I've had the fan on almost every night for the last month.

I think I'm going to have a peanut butter sandwich for dinner. It's too hot to cook, and I don't have the energy for it anyway. It's a good thing I bought a lot of fruit this week.

But first I'm going to go out and listen to crickets for a while. There might be a breeze out there, too.