Summer is Wearing Out

 Summer is winding down here.

Hard to believe it was early July only, when the constant rain finally quit and we got warm weather.  Went from rain to hot very fast after the 4th.  We have had not quite two months of nice summer weather, albeit much of it a little too hot.  Hotter than what we used to have around here summers but ok by me.

By the weekend we could experience a shower or two, and drop into mid 70's, a foretaste of the long gray to come.

But today and tomorrow will be low 90's again, before the cool off comes Friday.

I went to the lake Monday afternoon, after the cat deliveries.  Seems like ages ago now.

I was so worn out.   I didn't take the kayak or anything, just a chair and my little foam boogie board.   I use that for safety to swim,  with its velcro leash around my wrist.

I went with a friend who doesn't kayak, gets seasick really easily.  She can't ride in a car as a passenger at all either or gets carsick, can't drive crooked roads or that too makes her carsick even when she is driving.

So I drive to her place and then ride with her to the lake.  She can do that drive.

Must be hard to get carsick and seasick so easily.   I don't know what might cause that.

I have tried to find kayaking friends to go out with and have not been able to find anybody.

Anyhow, I swam a few times Monday, then also napped in my lawn chair.  It was nice and relaxing.  

Otherwise I haven't gone anywhere or done anything this summer which kind of sucks to think about.  I'm old and I don't know how many more summers where I can be active there will be.  One reason for that is the extreme prices of everything now and another reason is I couldn't find anyone who wanted to go do something, like go camping or hiking or kayaking somewhere.  It's gotten old to do everything alone.

It does not make me happy to think of the long months of gray, rain and ick to come, either, but at least it still rains here and we had enough water to carry over through the summer.   Not the case in many places.

Oliver, the last kitten trapped last Sunday, now with Meow Village, is looking really good after his ruptured eye was removed on Monday.

Oliver went from looking like this on Sunday afternoon....

To this, eye removed, and tiny protective cone, on Monday afternoon.

To this, on Tuesday.   Kittens heal so fast and are so adaptive to change.

He will be just fine.

I will be too, despite my misgivings and dread of the approaching inevitable end of our decent weather.

I am ever fascinated by nature.  My lawn is a wreck, a desert landscape, bare in spots, weedy in spots.  Yesterday I was out spraying the weeds with a solution of salt, vinegar and dish soap, my frugal weed killer mix.  Toxic to weeds too, especially if done late morning on a day that's to be hot.  I found spider lairs, neat perfectly round little holes in the dirt, some with silk type web in funnel shapes.  If I touched the silk web or even the ground (some holes had no webbing), a spider would charge out, then quickly retreat back into the hole when it realized no bug was near.  

These spiders are doing the job of killing lawn bugs.  And there are many, due to my neglect.

But what are they, I wondered.   Funnel web spiders come in many varieties and funnel their prey to them.  But what spider also lives in dirt holes?   Apparently not grass spiders.  Wolf spiders live in dirt holes exactly like the holes I found but generally do not build webs, neither the sticky variety nor the funnel variety.   Finally I found a lawn wolf spider photo to confirm wolf spiders occasionally do build small funnel webs at their holes.   So I think indeed they are lawn wolfers.

However, today I hope to stick a dead fly on one of the holes and try to get a better image of the spider.

The house next door is still empty.  I met the new owners by accident, out watering as were they.  They are so nice and love cats, had seen my catio, foster for the local shelter.  But....they bought the house for an investment and its up for rent.  Darn it.   But on the upside, I'll probably have an endless variety of new neighbors.   Hopefully no more screaming kids or massive numbers of cars attached.  I have nothing against kids but the hours upon hours of high pitched screaming going on behind me has made using my own yard something I can't abide.  Nothing pleasant about being in my yard with that going on constantly.   School starts soon, so I'm hoping for some relief then and I bet a lot of parents are hoping for the same thing.