Don’s Birthday Present

It is now 99.6 degrees (Farenheit) outside. I love hot weather, but even I have to admit that is a tad bit too hot here in the northern Willamette Valley. I am home alone and I had some ideas of things to do while home alone, but when it hit 96 outside, I decided it was way too hot to leave the dog out in, so I let him in. He requires a bit of babysitting as he still chews on anything he can get his mouth on and he opens closed doors to get to things he isn’t supposed to get to. He’s stretched out on the cool kitchen floor right now, being a Good Dog. The house is a mere 80 degrees inside.

The nice thing about this house is that we do not really need an AC. We have a window fan in one of the upstairs windows, blowing hot air out, but this house stays pretty cool until about 8:30 at night when the temps inside equalize with those outside. Fortunately, that is also when the house is covered with the shade from all the big pines in our neighbor’s yards. We have no large shade trees in our yard, it is just that this house stays cool. We close up all the blinds and windows and keep the doors closed on hot days. When the temps equalize, we’ll open everything up and then leave it open through the night to help cool the house back down.

I didn’t get on here to write about how to stay cool on a hot day. I was out and about when it was still in the upper 80’s, looking for a birthday gift for Don (who turns 51 tomorrow). I really wanted to go to a garden show, but Don abandoned me to help a friend of his move and I had this narrow window of opportunity to pick up his birthday present. Of course, he took the car that has A/C. Mine has the old-fashioned sort: roll the windows down and hope traffic moves at the speed limit. Which, when it is hot, it doesn’t. I haven’t figured out that phenomena yet, but I think it has to do with A/C in vehicles. They have A/C, so they drive slow. I don’t and I want them to find the gas pedal. Just go the speed limit!

OK, rant over. What Don wanted was a particular lounge chair. He found one in the REI catalog for over $100. Uh – NOT happening. Then Fred Meyer came up with a cheaper knock-off ($49). Bi Mart had one, too (Bi Mart is a local co-op that I just love), but their knock-off had a feature Don didn’t like, some knob that looked like it would break easily. Anyway, I went to the local Fred’s. NO CHAIRS. So I tried BiMart. They were out. So I went to the next closest Fred Meyer. Nope.

I was down to two choices: go to CostCo and hope they had the same item for cheap, or give in and go to REI. I HATE going to CostCo and there was no guarantee they would have one (especially since I was already on the road and hadn’t looked online). REI is close to the nearest CostCo, so… I gave in and went to the mall. Did I mention it was getting hot? I was starting to feel shaky (no breakfast except for coffee).

I walked into REi and there on display was the coveted chair. ON SALE. $80. That was $30 more than I wanted to pay but $40 less than the original price.  I didn’t have to go to CostCo on a hot day with other hot people… Woo hoo! So I bought one.

Then I followed people with A/C in their cars up the freeway. Argh! JUST GO 55! OK, so I don’t drive 55, either, but at least I am on the other side of 55, not holding back traffic.

Then I stopped at the grocery store and paid too much for groceries. <sigh>