Sorry all. Summer has found me with little inspiration to sit down and blog. I'm not sure why because it certainly isn't for lack of things to tell. Life has been busy and busier, but it seems like the more days go by without posting, the harder it is to get myself to just sit down and type.
We're coming out of a Saharan heat wave at the moment and so I am sticking to my chair as I write this. I'm sure it actually pales to the temeratures that most of my Portland friends were dealing with in late July, but still it's been pretty aweful. I say we're coming out of it, and it is true, today we're at a refreshing 93ºF. Keeping in mind that since Friday of last week it's been over 110ºF every day and only cooling down to about 78ºF, I'm not even joking that 93º feels nice. At least temperatures at night are dropping more recently so the house can actually cool off. We do not have AC, but thankfully just had an amazing, life-saving ceiling fan installed in our bedroom so with circulating air even the heat is bearable.
This week the academy is closed and so I'm on "holiday". We were supposed to go camping from Monday to Thursday, but with the heat it just seemed like a very bad plan even though the campground had a pool and river access. It's tough to go anywhere in August, too because EVERYONE has holidays and of course anywhere near water is usually jam-packed. So we ended up staying home and because Emily was so sad about not camping, I pitched our tent upstairs on the terrace! We have been "glamping" upstairs all week. ;)
These are actually my second holidays this summer. At the end of July I took off two weeks and we made the trans-Atlantic journey to California despite CoVID and its nefarious variants. It was an ordeal to be sure: European non-US citizens/residents (ie. Angelines) are not allowed into the States still under the Presidential Proclamation. Of course, there are exceptions, one of them being the spouse of a U.S. citizen, so we had to travel with a copy (and sworn translation just for good measure) of our marriage licence. Emily also travelled on a Spanish passport for the first time this trip (only on the return of course). In the past she has only had her US passport. And of course there were the extra long Q-tips up the nose 48 hours before our flights... Yuck! Thankfully no negative CoVID test was required on our return trip because it is so unpleasant.
Once we were there, of course, every bit of red tape was worth it. It was fantastic just to BE at my parents' home and BE with them and my sisters. We didn't plan anything at all for our visit other than my cousin's wedding at the end of our stay, and that was the best thing we could have done. We just hung around home. Emily drove the tractor, the lawn mower, rode the horses, bathed the horses, fed the horses... We hiked Sierra Buttes and went to Fraizer Falls. We barbecued with family friends and just generally enjoyed each other.
It was only two years since our last visit, but with CoVID, it felt more like five. You don't feel the distance so much until suddenly it's acutally NOT possible to book a flight and go whenever you want. Of course, I never just go at the drop of a hat, but the fact is I could, in theory...if I had a few extra thousand sitting around. But suddenly without that option, even with near daily video calls, the distance seemed greater than ever. So even though this last visit was just two short weeks, it was intense, and it was enough to get me through until my sister and mom come this fall. ;)
Angelines has just brought me some cold watermelon--yum. I'm going to sign off and stuff my face!
