http://www.dosguys.com/JCS/MIDI-index.htm

Just in case you ever wanted a bouncy, electronic, singer-less MIDI version of “Heaven on Their Minds.”

One morning I looked out the sliding glass door and the neighbors cat was sitting on the fence, staring up at the big tree. A black squirrel jumped down from some very high branches in the tree and started to come down the trunk. The cat, understandably, was excited by this. The squirrel, also understandably, became disconcerted at the sight of the cat, halted, and ran back up the trunk. But only so far. Then it turned around and started a stare-off with the feline who dared to be in his way.

I was only able to shoot through the glass door/screen, for fear the sound of the door opening would scare them both away, so the pics are kinda fuzzy. It was hilarious to watch, trust me.

Parts of California are in the middle of a “record breaking heat wave” this week, including where we live. This means, as always, that I’m one grumpy customer. Temperatures reached about 98F yesterday, and today doesn’t look much different. It is, however, supposed to start cooling off by the end of this weekend to what I would consider a bit more normal, for the area. But that news doesn’t make me happy right now. My aversion to any temperatures over 75F has been noted before, which is why I don’t live in places like Texas/Arizona/anywhere desert-hot. I know some people love hot weather and like to go to parks, beaches, and run around in sprinklers while throwing a frisbee, but all I want to do is stand in a dark room with frozen wet towels around my neck and a fan on high. No energy, no motivation, and Ms FrownyFace. Days like this I “hate” my husband, who marches around happily in the sun, sweat rolling off his face as he does yard work or something, and who starts complaining when the temp drops to something frigid like, oh, 78F.

Normally our new house cools off very rapidly at night, because of a combination of cool evening breezes, a lot of trees, and awesome air circulation when you open the doors/windows. It’s been something I’ve enjoyed immensely, after years of living in that poor-circulation/no shade house in SJ. On days like this, however, there’s no evening breeze so the house never cools off and I feel like we’re back in SJ again. For example, this was the temperature in my library/pc room at 8:30pm last night, after I had the doors/windows all wide open and two fans on for a couple hours:

By 11:30PM, the temperature inside this room had dropped an entire 5-6 degrees. Wheee.

By 4am, the temp had dropped to about 80F and I grumpily went to bed…to wake up at 10am and temps that were already close to 90F. The end of the weekend, and (hopefully) temperatures back in the low 80’s or less, cannot come soon enough.

Edit: It’s now 8PM, and…YES!!…the glorious evening breeze is back today, meaning the house is/will cool off a lot more tonight. You can’t see it, but I am doing a happy dance.

This is a ladybug pupa hanging ‘upside down’ from it’s anchor point on the fence. I like the image because one, it’s funky looking, and two, it’s not the typical top-down shot of ladybug larva. Apparently, they’re not black/orange on their underside. :)

This ladybug had recently “hatched” from it’s pupa shell and was still gathering its energy.

On the backyard fence underneath a sappy tree, there are currently a lot of ladybug larvae running around, eating aphids and eventually turning into pupae so they can become ladybugs. As I was watching them scurry over the fence boards, I was witness to an adult ladybug catching an aphid…and a second later, an impudent larva waltzed right up and tried to snatch it away. There was a bit of a tug-of-war for the tasty morsel. After several seconds, the larva lost his grip, gave up, and the adult ladybug continued her meal in peace.