No, I don't have any. It's simply as if I can't get up any gumption whatsoever these days and there is absolutely no reason for it. I could mention that my laptop hasn't been in its usual spot for a couple weeks and this fact allows me to forget about it unless I am parked right in front of it. There is also something about hot lazy summer days with no air conditioning that tend to sap one's will to work, to ruminate - indeed, to do just about anything - when there is no need to. But that isn't really a reason, or even an excuse. Heck, it's not even that hot here and my apartment has such good air circulation that, apart from about ten days every year when heat is not a friend, I really do not need and could not justify using air conditioning, even if I did have it.
My summer guests were somewhat shocked a couple weeks back when we had our hottest day so far (34 C = 93.2 F) to realize that my abode is not air conditioned. Fortunately, HWMBO reminded me that I had a couple fans in my basement storage area that have helped out since. We hadn't spent much summer time here since August 2007 and I literally had forgotten that I had them. For the hottest day so far, we kept the shutters down with the windows open and the fans on, thereby generating enough air circulation to make things tolerable, at least for those of us "oldsters" who, like I, remember routine 100+ F summer temperatures on the high plains of North Central Montana before we had even heard of the luxury of air conditioning. But the younger generation has been much more sheltered, less used to heat discomfort and doesn't like being uncomfortably hot unless that heat is coupled with a beach and they are lying on it. Still, my guests took things in stride. Having the temperatures drop almost immediately to more tolerable ranges helped immensely in retaining equanimity and they now have a fan to help out when it begins to get sticky. Right now, the weather is quite pleasant, although today has certainly been a day of microclimates, to be sure. After a dark and overcast early morning that developed into impressive thunderstorms and torrential rains by mid-morning, the sun came out in the early afternoon. Now, in mid-afternoon, it's clouding over once again.
HWMBO departed several days ago for the more humid clime of Maryland - where air conditioning is a necessary fact of life - and misses no opportunity to remind me of what I'm missing insofar as climate control is concerned. All things considered, I would rather take my chances with an environment where I can be almost as comfortable outside as inside in the summer. And I certainly do not miss the myriad and various bugs of Maryland, especially the awful recent invaders from China, stink bugs, of all things! Ugh! Or the noxious plants, especially after my painful brush with poison ivy - or one of its close relatives - last summer.
My visitors did have a scare last week when an large insect flew past them one evening while we were indoors watching television. The insect - I had at first feared that it was a bat because it was so large and a bat would have freaked them out even more - turned out to be an exceptionally large green grasshopper. I managed to trap it and free it outdoors, but not before it had made one desperate dash in their direction, obviously even more frightened of us. This caused both girls to scream bloody murder at the top of their lungs! It was quite amusing in retrospect, although none of us found it amusing at the time. Needless to say, the evening's television viewing was a casualty of this event.
An event that occupied quite a lot of my time and energy in June, especially while HWMBO was here, was the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. Because I so love to watch Roger Federer play and because I would love to see him win a couple more Grand Slam titles before his inevitable retirement now that he is an "old man" of 30 this year, I really hoped that Wimbledon would be one of them. I'm sure that he himself would also have liked to win and this year the odds seemed good. He had played superbly throughout the opening rounds, while his perennial jinx, Rafael Nadal, had seemed more faltering and tentative than usual. Of course, Rafa kept gritting it out and winning his matches. Still, up until the quarter finals, it appeared that Roger had a good shot at making it into the semis for a finals match-up with Rafa once again. But a French player named Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had other ideas. Surprisingly, even after Roger had won the first two sets, Tsonga was able to pull off a real upset and that was that. Roger was out. Tsonga himself was beaten by the red-hot Novak Djokovic, whose only defeat this year has come at Roger's hands. As anyone who follows tennis now knows, Novak soundly defeated Rafa in the finals to win his third Grand Slam title, his first at Wimbledon, and take over the No 1 spot in the Men's Singles ATP rankings. Novak certainly does deserve it and has had an incredible winning streak. Rafa admitted afterwards to having the same sort of mental block when he's playing Djokovic as Roger seems to have when he plays Rafa. Ah well!
In any event, this weekend Roger, together with his Olympics Gold Medal doubles partner, fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka, played for Switzerland in its Davis Cup match against Portugal. Both Roger and Stan won their singles matches Friday, although neither played top form tennis. At least, Stan won in three sets. Roger, almost unbelievably and to the shock of the hometown crowd in Bern, lost his first set. Then he settled down and got back to the business of winning. The pair also won their doubles competition yesterday so Roger sat back while replacement Marco Chiudinelli and Stan played out the singles match-ups scheduled for today. Anyway, it was good to see Roger in action again so soon, even if not at his best. The Davis Cup play reminded me of when HMWBO and I saw Roger play in Geneva for Switzerland against Serbia in 2006 (I believe). We were privileged to watch him play a then 19-year-old Novak Djokovic - who nearly stole the show! Novak has certainly lived up to the promise that he showed then.
Anyway, I haven't forgotten SD. In case of any concern, the e coli outbreak elsewhere in Europe has - fortunately - not affected us here at all, so there has been no reason for concern. I've not been writing for many reasons, but primarily out of sheer laziness! Sorry about that!
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