For supper I fried bacon. After all the heat on the back porch I’d have done it naked if I could get away with it.

Also we skipped church, so now I’m not only a tattooed misery, I’m a heathen too.

But I wasn’t done sweating yet.

Before picture here.

And there’s an air quality index alert.

And I have to mow.

Think Ima just about die.

Sunscreen, here I come.

Went out to mow. The X “fixed” the rider mower, not, it’s not running right. I knew it wouldn’t make it through the whole lawn.

Up walks a clean-cut guy, needing gas money, and says “I’ll mow your lawn with my own mower for $20.”

I’m really broke. Really. I told him I don’t have $20.

He said he’d do it for $15. That’s a lot of lawn to mow for $15. But he has a rider.

So I scrounged piggy banks and paid him the $15. I know what it’s like to need gas money. At least he wasn’t asking for a handout.

He’s gonna weed-eat too.

It takes me 2.5 hours in this heat with the pushmower.

Broke or not, it was worth it.

We turned the air on, to see if we could get any cool going in the house before it craps out for the day again..

I half-heartedly started to clean the bathroom.

Artemas is unsure about the tattoo design I drew up for him. He’s like, it doesn’t look very much like a skull. I said, Artemas, you wanted it to be a red pepper! There’s only so far I can go with that before the one disappears and becomes the other.

I need to spin that dyed wool today. TODAY.

I’m hungry, but can’t think of what to eat of what we have on hand. I need to shop for groceries so bad. In the last 2 weeks I’ve only spent like $60 on groceries so our reserves are pretty low.

Plus. 900 calories of beer & cheetos last night makes me rethink eating…

This large leg mural I’ve been working on peeled Monday and again today. The new skin underneath is very sensitive, even to the point where moving air over it stimulates the nerves. Not only that but I get “echo” twinges in other places on my body. It feels like I’m very antsy, like I can’t keep still, like I itch here, there, and everywhere.

Like an addict getting nerve-ending tinglings everywhere.

I’ve never had a tattoo feel like this when healing before. Even when I cut in all the black background 2 weeks before, it didn’t do this.

The guy I apprenticed under for a year says he’s had a few tattoos do that. And that it could be that I’ve just overtaxed my system by doing SO much area in such a short time (all the black and then all the blue within 2 weeks). Too much healing going on.

However that may be, I’m glad my kids stayed at the X’s tonight. It’s too hot in here for humanity and I’m too skeeved out to have to deal with anybody else anyway.

I’m going to take a benedryl & drink some beer.

And lie on the bed in my too-hot house in just a thong.

The kids can play the Wii. Des and Diantha can spin this other piece of yarn for me & ply it to what I spun Thursday.

Allen and I can mow after I get him from work at 7. Maybe by then I’ll have some energy back.

I can go up into Des’ big, cool, quiet bedroom & lie on the bed.

There is air-conditioning at her house.

Hair down loose so I don’t feel quite so nekkid.

I had to leave work to bring x’s car home so the guys can make a parts run. Can’t do that once my car was apart. (See me buying a drain pan from the demon Big-Box store) X gets off work in 6 minutes so I have to go and get him.

It’s 94 degrees inside my house. We’re going to try to use the air for as long as it works.

I don’t think I can take ONE more problem right now without some kind of breakdown.

I have to go make dinner. We’re supposed to have pork chops, because they’ve been thawed out for 3 days.

I don’t want to make dinner when my house is jungle-swelter inside.

I want to eat cold pasta salad or microwave hotdogs.

And then lie on the floor and eat a freezie.

It’s a heat index of 94F/33C outside. It’s 90F/31.5C inside.

We got 3 good days out of the air. Someone is coming Monday from our utility board to talk to us about replacing the unit. Payments go on the utility bill but the units are so much more efficient than this one (1978, right?) that it should drop the bill by almost the amount of the payments.

Since I have no credit any other way, I’m ready to sign. Enough is enough.

We are going to have homemade wheat crust, homemade pizzas for supper anyway, even though I have to run my oven in the inferno.

And no GPOYS because I got flour on the boobs of my black shirt.

If the heat doesn’t get to me. It’s 88F/32C already.

Then come home and shower and fold laundry.

Maybe I’ll even put on a sundress just to humor badassblogger

Maybe.

So I guess I get to sweat my fitness cleaning off the front porch.

Also at this count there are 5 loads of laundry to fold, with 2 more to go, so I guess that’s plenty of bend, twist, and arm exercise.

Fitness Through Frumpery 101

Did two more loads of laundry.

Cleaned off the porch. Filled a 35gallon trash barrel.

Fixed a bookcase we got for FREE from someone’s front yard. It’s real wood and painted purple (bonus!) but it was slightly racked. I triangulated it with some screen molding, cleaned it off & brought it in the house.

Installed a turnbuckle on the screen door, which was also wood and slightly racked. Then I used the power-sander to sand 3 parts of the frame that were hanging up when we’d close it.

This is what my shirt looked like when I was done. Not hot out there or anything. A shower felt REALLY good, just sayin’.

I took Allen to work and braved the crowds on the no-sales-tax weekend to get the kids a couple pieces of clothing at Kohl’s, since I had a 20% off everything coupon & I can put it on my card to pay next month. Ended up with 10 items for less than 50 bucks, including jeans and a dress shirt for the incredible hulk Artemas, which is how I roll.

But now I get to go finish cleaning the porch.

Who wants to shower with me when I’m done?

And then take me out for a pizza?

I washed all the large pieces of dishes and water bottles and put them in the non-working dishwasher to dry, then put all the rest of the dishes available in hot soapy water to soak while I went to clean the porch. Even dishes is hot work when there’s no AC.

I’ve cleaned the rest of the back porch in the 100-degree heat.

Reboxed all the soap supplies and quilt fabrics.

Rehung all 56 sweaters and put 4 of them that need to be felted, and a bag full of doll clothes I found, in to wash.

Moved 2, 2’ x 8’, 3/8” thick panels of compressed wood out to the shed, and one 4’ x 8’ one that I also dropped on my toe, since it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Dragged an oriental-carpet type 5’ x 8’ rug out to the curb, where I hope someone steals it.

Moved 4, 4’ x 8’ tile-board panels.

Swept.

In related news: why does my washing machine sound like a cement mixer? All I need is to have to replace another appliance right now. The 2 yo dishwasher already bellied up.

I’m going to get in the shower and then go somewhere where there’s air conditioning, have a huge greasy burger and a cold brew.

Who’s buying?