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Wow, it ended up getting to 108. Then a storm blew through on the north side of town and took the temp. down to 92 in about an hour. We didn't get any storm damage here but power is out in some areas. Bad time to have your air conditioning go out. Evidently the largest wild fire in the nation is now here in southern Idaho. It's just alot of sage brush and dry grass that has been burning so far though, so not a very big deal in comparison to alot of the fires. Nowhere near us. Moonie, did you get hit by that freak windstorm last week?

Grail coffee for Meme and everyone who wants one. For many of us that would be in the morning, in the air conditioning as it is too damn hot to drink coffee any time or anywhere else. My only regret last Friday when it was somewhere around 108 or so where I was, was not bringing brownie batter to bake in the back of my truck. I'm not kidding, I'm pretty sure I could have baked brownies back there. Certainly baked myself. Had to use my hand truck at one stop, I had to kick it out of the back of the truck because it was too hot to touch. Yeah, shoulda been a teacher with summers (most anyway) off. Here's to keeping cool and avoiding wild fires. Still thinking of going to Yellowstone and visiting an old friend and a relative, but going to depend on my truck that is acting up again. Beyond that, since I'm having dreams of housecleaning, perhaps my subconcious is telling me I really need to find time to do a bit more of that too. My problem is time, which is why I find it ironic that all too often the people that can afford to pay someone else to clean their house, have the time to do it themselves. It really is a strange world we live in. BTW, some Maker's Mark with an ice cube is not a bad hot weather drink.

Thanks for the coffee! Geez, Zen, be careful you don't burn your hands- seriously. That would not be good. Hey, could you make me some eggs on the sidewalk when your done with the brownies in the back of your truck?

Morning all! Just put a pot of chocolate silk coffee on, enjoy!

Big, the eggs on sidewalk is too overdone. Today was nice weather wise. Overcast most of the day. Supposed to warm up daily the rest of the week. At least I have a vacation coming up soon, then it can be as hot as it wants to be. Actually, the hotter it is here, the more likely I will take that trip to the mountains. Should probably give my friend a heads up that I might be in his neck of the woods soon. Hmmm, Green, take you up on that chocolate silk coffee tomorrow morning. Which reminds me, I must buy coffee.

OK, make mine over easy then. There are about 4 wildfires burning south of here. One of them is about 35 miles away near Mountain Home. Luckily they're pretty much all sagebrush so far. They had to close I-84 for awhile yesterday because of the smoke, and from here it looks like a bank of clouds. In the middle of the night last night the moon was orange, and it smelled like smoke and BBQ. Creepy. I don't think anyone was BBQing in the middle of the night. This guy noticed the moon, too. It was acctually even a little darker orange than this in person. http://www.ktvb.com/first-person/162009265.html

Uh oh- When I looked at the weather and found this picture they said there is a new fire burning north in Boise Nat'l forest and homes have been evacuated. That's not good. Years ago we were coming back from Spokane and there was a huge fire going that year about an hour north of town. It was on both sides of the highway, but it was night and it was cooler so it had died down some so the road was open. There were firefighters around and retardant splattered across the highway. The trees were burning a glowing orange up the hillside and on the other side of the road along the river. It was so hot the windows were almost too hot to touch. One of the most awe inspiring things I have ever witnessed.

Hi Zen, TGEM, and Big ~ and all others who were recently here. I have to laugh at Zen's comment about makers mark, one cube?!! For me it would have to be more than one to cool off such a quench. Hope you are staying cool, working outside is a bitch. Big, sorry to hear that there are more fires burning out west. Be safe. I didnt check out the moon last night, but I liked the link you provided ~ you say the orange moon smelled like smoke and BBQ?!!! hahahaha. (of course, I know what you meant, but it was funny how you put it ) Hope everyone is doing well. I just came off an 8 day vacation and had to return to work on Monday, it was really hard to get back in the groove. Still is!! well ~ here I am at work ... I guess I better get back to it. Have a wonderful day/evening .... no coffee for me, thanks anyway. I need a pina colada.

Hi Moonie! Hope you had a great vacation! Your right,Moonie, I did make it sound like the orange moon smelled of smoke and BBQ. I am so silly. It did look like a big BBQ chip, though. It's in the 100's again today, and will be to be until Saturday, when it is supposed to get into the 90's. I think that will make it a little over a week of it being in the 100's. We usually get at least a few of those every year. We had about four days around 110 about eight years ago. That was nuts.

Sounds like you could do with some of the rain we're getting at the moment BTI. Wishing it your way!!

Thanks Clothy!

Will add more later, but while on the subject here of weather, temps, etc., I wanted to say that last Sat - 7/7/12, the day's temp in Lancaster, PA had gone to @ 101-102 degrees (after having a full week of high 90's). Since my great-nieces, Rowan (10) and Emaleth (7) were spending a week with me (as they often do), many of our plans had to be changed from outdoor things to staying cool at the pool. For Sat, we had planned a full day there because we knew it would be incredibly hot. Sat was spent at the pool and we were there for @ 5 1/2 hours -- had a great time and couldn't really "feel" the temp, which was nice. In the evening, we went to a dairy farm for our evening ice cream (this is usually what we do each night -- I am collecting data as to the best places for homemade ice cream here in Lancaster County, PA -- -- right!). While having our ice cream, we were sitting on the porch of the place and watched the sky as lightning made a very strong display -- it was further south, but I knew that we'd be getting it fairly soon. So, we ate our ice cream quickly and by the time we began to drive home (@ 8-10 miles), the sky was incredibly dark, with very strong winds blowing. It was still very hot outside -- in the low 90s so I had the air conditioning on in the car. I decided to drive home not through the park that I usually take, but rather on the main road -- so very glad that I did. In the very short time it took me to drive home, Emaleth had fallen asleep, and I drove through the storm -- it was nearly impossible to see -- the rain was coming down so hard, it felt as if I was driving underwater and there was hail that was hitting my car so hard that I felt as if I was driving through a shooting gallery -- it sounded like bullets were hitting my car and I was very worried that one of them would shatter my windshield. Meanwhile, I kept reassuring Rowan that we were nearly home and kept talking to her, trying to keep her calm by acting like this was no big deal (but I was really worried). The rain continued to pound so hard with the hail, I debated about pulling over for just a few minutes, but I knew I was close to home. I saw one last traffic light ahead and reassured Rowan -- "See that traffic light, that's the corner that I turn at, so you see how close we are to home. You're okay, right?" She told me she was. We both commented again how we could not believe that Emaleth was sleeping through it all. As I reached the traffic light, just as I was turning the corner, I realized that it was completely clear, sky was blue and although there was lots and lots of tree limbs, etc., on the ground, I knew that the storm had just passed through here. We pulled into my community and I had to steer clear of some tree limbs that had fallen down on the ground from the storm. The roads were already drying because of the heat. We got out of the car and I pointed out to Rowan all the hail that was on the lawn -- it looked like Christmas (wintry mix) in July! Ayway, I was so glad to have gotten through the storm safely and no damage to my home -- lots of houses went without power for a few days because of the 10 minutes of storm that passed through. In the end, Emaleth swore up and down that she did hear it all but was just "resting" her eyes and when I asked Rowan if she had been afraid, she kept telling me, "No" until I told her that I was afraid but didn't want to tell her that -- then she smiled and said, "Well, I was a little bit afraid, but not that much. " Who else do you know that takes several paragraphs to talk about the weather??? Oh well, it's what I do, who I am and how I roll, what can I say? G'nite all and kind regards. Tomorrow's Friday and I'm celebrating the weekend . . . catch up with ya later.

We've been relatively cool here, but supposed to be pretty warm tomorrow and upper 90'sF and mid 100's next week. Yippee. Might be able to see if I can bake brownies in the back of my truck next week. Don't think I won't try. So glad I am on vacation the two weeks after. Which if it's going to still be too damn hot, I'm headed for the mountains. Pretty sure what's wrong with my truck. One of two things, or possibly both, so hopefully it will be up to the trip.

BTW, relatively cool is below 93*F today. Funny how a few days between 104 and 110 makes 93 cool.

I commented last week, when the temps were in the high 80's, low 90's and said basically the same thing -- funny how 80's was such a welcomed change after having nearly 10 days of high 90's and the 100's -- it's all relative. My home is currently 72 degrees when the air conditioning is on, yet 72 degrees in the winter would be just a wee bit nippy -- not much, but a wee bit. Stay relatively cool all and have a great day and weekend!

It's all relative I guess. Here in Colorado after a cold snap when it returns to say 40 degrees people will wear shorts. When I lived in California 40 degrees was a reason to wear a heavy coat.

Hi Big!!!, Thank you kindly, my vacation was very nice. Hope you are well. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In General to all who sit at the table; you know I got to thinking why I stay away from this place more often than come here and I realized that it's because there always seems to be arguments under the Peter Gabriel section. I decided to go to the other forums here that are available and found many other members there who are kind and polite toward each other & actually have nice conversations and totally show interest in Peter's work. I do not know half the names there because I really didnt give it a chance, but I am going to try and fit in over there. At least there, you can feel free from attack at any given moment. If you're looking for me, that's where I'll be. Peace

Wow! I finally begin to join in on the discussions here at the roundtable (something I never did because I never felt wanted here) and this is what I find in the discussions. I'm so sorry Karen that you continue to feel this way -- in fact, I've only ever looked in at this particular thread periodically and any time that I've seen you here (and had hoped for some conversation), your posts have always been about the same thing -- you don't like it here on the moon because of the lunies here (and I know we've had discussions about this on other places) -- I'm sorry that you still feel this way. In the past, I've done all I could to explain to you why I continue to come here and why I like it here still -- despite the "newer" attitude here and had really hoped you'd like it -- it would have been nice for you to have been able to know what I'm talking about when I say how it used to be here and I know that it'll never go back to that. Fortunately and unfortunately, things do change constantly so I think that's why I remain here (other than the obvious reason -- my interest in Peter's work -- one of your requirements that you listed above). As usual, I'm forever hopeful. I wish you well in the other forums/sections/pages and hope you find it better than here. Please know that you have always fit in here in my book, but I get what you mean because that's how I've been feeling here lately with many of the newer lunatics -- so it's probably just a group dynamic thing that happens with new and old, old and new. So sorry that we didn't quite meet your needs here, Karen. I wish you well and hope you have a great summer! Kind regards to you and all,

Morning luvs! Today Otis and I plans in logging some couch potato time. Time out the outside world, stay in with the AC at full blast and indulge ourselves with yummy treats! (run on sentence anyone?). The weather in Texas is Hella hot! Anyways pancakes for one and all! Let's try to restore peace in our lovely moon Home and enjoy each others company.

Green, right there with you yesterday. Needed a day of nothing, well OK, did a little vacuuming and such, but mostly nothing. Even had a pizza delivered. Stuffed spinach with mushrooms and black olives. Anyone wants any I have some left. Otherwise pancakes would have been great. Moon, I find some of that finds it's way to the other sections of the site, but yes, more often then not it stays more fan base there with a few more faces then seen in this section. Perhaps, having a more diverse population helps keep some of this at bay? All will be well,as you know, we go through these phases from time to time. Which is what chased a few to Facebook and other places. I don't do Facebook and this is the best place for Peter updates for me, so I stay. I really don't take anything here all that personally. Some of what goes on here just does make me wonder sometimes, but is not unusual for the internet. Most as I can figure is there are some really bored people out there. I suppose it's a cheap hobby to try to see if they can get a rise out of people. It's kind of a control thing and you can tell the frustration that comes from them when you don't rise to their occasion. Have to use my nieces favorite word for that, Whatever. Anyway, since I can't spend another day sitting around doing little...