Ugh, it's summer

Frankly, I think there's something kind of perverse about the local weather people seeming all excited that we're going to have heat indexes of 105 this weekend. (A couple days ago they were predicting rain and a cool-down; I guess that went away).

I've noted many times before that I don't like heat, and especially don't like humidity (It's been very humid here so far this summer). I like it even less as I get older. And it brings out my hives, and I also seem to get a lot more muscle cramping in the upper abdomen (like around the intercostal muscles) with it. (I think some of the abdominal distress I've had over the past few months MIGHT be muscles, not organs - it seems very "surficial" and it goes away with things like taking a warm shower or movement).

And yeah, I do still feel kind of cabin fever-ish, despite getting out last weekend. I need to mow the lawn and I need to find a time but it won't be today (afternoon lab and I also do want to get out and vote - there are primaries in my state today) and it won't be tomorrow either unless I do it after piano lesson.

I DO think a lot of this is how alone I am on an average day - less stuff going on at church in the summer, very few people around in the department, coupled with the fact that there is just the ongoing slog of summer classes. And teaching this summer seems to be taking more out of me than I remembered it doing in the past - even after "just" the two 75-minute lectures in a day and whatever research/prepwork I can put my hand to in the afternoon, I come home and I just need to sit for fifteen or 20 minutes before I can think of doing anything.

Side note: I still feel like I did when I was a kid, that it is a cheat that many magazines do June/July or July/August issues in the summer. Oh, I get the idea of "we want to give our staff some time off" but I always felt like summer was the time you had the TIME to read a magazine, and it seemed to go very long between issues. (And I keep looking at the calendar and thinking, "Shouldn't my next Doki Doki box be shipping?" but that won't be for a few more days yet).

I'm also gonna voice a possibly-unpopular opinion here: I hate that "little" fireworks are so wide spread and widely sold here. It bugs me that so many things among them are legal in this state, and people love to shoot them off. I am expecting not to sleep much this entire weekend (at least I get July 4th, which is a Monday, off). I don't like noise, I especially don't like loud random noises I can't predict - if someone is, for example, running a grinder or a leaf blower in my neighborhood some evening, I may feel irritated but I will be able to ignore it. But firecrackers going off trigger my fight-or-flight response and startle me. And I can't sleep with them going off, not even with a white noise machine AND an air filter going on. And yeah, I get that people enjoy celebrating in that way and everything and it's just once a year (though if I were here over New Year's Eve, it would be twice a year: there is a tradition, at least in the South, of setting off fireworks for New Year's, and the stands even re-open during that time).

A few years back, when there were particularly a lot in my neighborhood (bunches of teens), I remember thinking to myself, "This would be kind of what it would be like to be in a war zone where there was a lot of hand-to-hand, guerilla-type fighting" and I will say I realized I was grateful I DIDN'T live in a place like that.

There is a big old house just down the street from me that seems to be inhabited by a group of several guys in their 20s so I am anticipating fireworks though the guys have not been too loud thus far.

I also will add I don't like picking up all the debris that winds up scattered around; I think the responsible thing to do would be, if you shot off fireworks, you go out the next morning and pick up debris equivalent to what you shot off. It doesn't have to be YOUR debris; if everyone did that the neighborhood would get clean. 

I think also my tiredness is related to allergies: my allergies seem to be worse this summer - grass pollen has been high because of the heavy rain this spring, and also, a lot of people seem not to be mowing (I worry less about my lawn because one neighbor has not mown in a month, and someone down at the end of the street has grass that is 8" or so tall. Wonder when the city will come after them...) Also on campus they haven't mown for a while, not sure if that's a money-saving thing or related to the no-budget/fiscal-year-ending thing. (It's feast or famine: there were times earlier when they'd come out and mow every week whether it needed or not - they use an outside business - and they'd just be kicking up dust because the grass was not growing)

I also wonder if it's related to my blood pressure. Without going into all the TMI details, I discontinued a particular med my gyn had me on because we suspected it was contributing to my stomach issues. This was also a med my internist thought might be driving up my blood pressure. The past few days, as it has worked its way out of my system, my blood pressure has been a good deal lower though I am not sure I trust that; the cuff could also be wearing out as I got anomalous low readings when the last cuff wore out (last night's was 98/60, which isn't too low on the diastolic but that systolic seems suspicious to me). Then again, my balance has gone wonky again - I noticed that when I was first on the blood pressure meds and experienced a drop in my blood pressure, that it was hard to stay vertical when I turned fast or something, and also, the tiredness could be a thing. I see my internist at some point this summer and I may ask her about dialing back the dosage....I also need to either obtain a new cuff or get someone to test it independently, maybe if I can get over to the nurse's office here....

Then again - maybe I don't need to restrict sodium so severely any more? That would make life easier, though then again, I've adapted so completely to it that there's not much sense in going back.

I've been working away on the Sloane Shawl but it is one of those Projects That Never Ends. It is minimally big enough (it wasn't, earlier - I measured it, thinking it WAS, but no). I keep looking at the ball (I am on the last ball of yarn) and going "two more pattern rows and then just do the garter stitch border" but then after the two rows, I decide there's still plenty in the ball. (I don't want a ton of the yarn left over at the end). Also, it's a partly-acrylic yarn so I am NOT counting on being able to do too much with blocking to stretch it out, so I want it to be big enough.