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Welcome to my personal blog. I have another blog, Herbert's Place, but that one limits me to what I sometimes want to publish, because it is mainly used to promote my books. As it says in the header, I want to use this blog to write about things that have nothing to do with my books. There is no real theme here. I'll be writing about anything that causes me to either be happy or somethings that concerns me. It could be political, travel, a hobby, or anything else. So come and visit me sometimes.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

#Surviving the Heat



It is 33 C out there today. 40 C Humidex. That is hot and uncomfortable.

I spent one hour outside today from 11:15 am until 12:20 pm. Not too smart. Midday is the worst time to spend outside doing work when the sun is burning down on you. Not only was it uncomfortably hot, the mosquitoes were also out in full force making my life more miserable.

We have brown spots on our lawn, which means it is infected with a fungus. I sprayed the brown circles with a mixture of skim milk and water. 350 ml of milk to 3 ½ liters of water. It is supposed to kill the fungus. Can’t get any more organic. I’ll have to do it again next week.

What a tedious and demanding job! Especially in this heat. I used a handheld sprayer that holds about 8 liters of water. When full it is quite heavy to carry. And you have to continuously pump it to get pressure. You can’t hurry, because the brown spots need to be soaked with the liquid.

Why did I do that today? Well, it’s been raining a lot and it just so happens I had time today. I should have done it earlier, though. When I came back into the house I felt exhausted with wobbly legs and my face was beet-red from the heat. You don’t realize that while you are doing the job. I took a cold shower immediately and felt better. We didn’t even sit in our sun-room for lunch today because of the heat. The only one enjoying it is our canary.

Thank goodness for air conditioning. I pity the people who don’t have that luxury. They must suffer tremendously. I can still remember when we didn’t have air conditioning. You couldn’t sleep at night because of the stifling heat and the humidity. Never got a good night’s rest. Of course, we were younger then and not as susceptible to the heat they way we are now as we got older. However, we were still working at the time and not being able to sleep affects your performance at work.

Anybody who thinks using milk to spray grass is a waste of good milk I’d like them to know that this milk had gone bad. We’ve been buying #Dairyland milk until now but are finally done with that. We are fed up with it going bad all the time before its expiry date. This is the sixth time in two months that it happened. I wrote the parent company #Saputo a letter of complaint and they sent us a couple of coupons. Well, guess what? The milk we got for the coupons turned bad also. Talk about adding insult to injury! We usually buy our milk at Wal-Mart. Somewhere from the time they bottle the milk until it reaches the shelves of Wal-Mart something goes wrong. We know it isn’t at our end, because we always buy with coolers and ice-packs to bring home perishable goods, and that includes milk. They should not put on their cartons 'Fresh Local Milk' and 'Fresh is never far'. I don't believe this milk is local, anyway.

Tonight we’ll be going to watch ‘Sister Act’ at Rainbow stage in Kildonan Park. Hopefully it isn’t too hot and the mosquitoes aren’t there to watch the play with us. We enjoyed the last two performances ‘Westside Story’ and ‘Les Miserable’. Hopefully, this one is as good. It will be funny.

I went fishing with my friends on Tuesday for Goldeyes. According to the weather people, it was supposed to be 31 C with a mix of sun and cloud. Rain was never mentioned. Well, we had barely begun fishing when it started raining; not just raining but pouring. I pack rain-gear every time I go fishing. As Murphy’s law dictates it, this time I didn’t. It wasn’t supposed to rain.

I remembered that I had a plastic garbage bag in my stuff, so I made a rain cover for myself by cutting a hole into the bottom for my head and two holes for my arms. It did the trick. My arms got wet and my pants were soaked, but my upper body stayed dry. It finally stopped raining and the sun made an appearance. It got hot and our clothes dried again. Another lesson to be learned: Never ever trust the weather people!

Here again is my poem I wrote about the weather people and put on my blog last year:

#The Weather Forecaster's Song


I forecast the weather and I love my job
Because I can’t do no wrong
No matter what I forecast I can’t be blamed
Every day it’s the same sing-song

I will tell you it might rain or it might snow
The sun may even appear
Every night on TV I’ll make a big show
And I do this without fear

I just flip my coin in my secret room
Rain or shine it don’t matter to me
Will I forecast gloom and doom
Heads or tails, what will it be?

Will the sun shine or will there be a storm
To be honest I have no clue
How the weather pattern will perform
Sometimes I truly wish I knew

With weather satellites to track the clouds
And other high-tech gizmos
I still don’t know what it’s all about
None of us weather people really knows

My job is secure, for life you might say
I work for the government you see
With this job I will always stay
For the benefits and the security.

So let me give you some advice
If the weather you want to know
Check in the Farmer’s Almanac
Or just look out of your window

© 2014 Herbert Grosshans

I wish you a cool, pleasant day tomorrow and for the weekend. And don’t put too much faith in the weather forecast.

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