Dinner with Lynxton

Dinner time. We are having cottage cheese, avocado, and cantaloupe. Good hot weather meal. Here is Lynx, eating his cantaloupe.

The toddler figures it out

As it turns out, all this button pushing and knob turning, door opening and such that Lynxton has been doing and scaring us half to death with and driving us crazy - it's just been his effort to figure things out. Now he's got the microwave figured out, he knows that you open the door, put in an item of food, press a few buttons from the upper panel, then press the lone button on the second to lowest panel, the microwave comes on, makes noise, starts turning inside, you step aside, patiently wait until it dings, then you press the great big button at the very bottom. The door pops open and grandma or grandpa takes out the food item. Then you close the door. In fact just before he closes door, he says "Doh da do!" - "Close the door!"

I never wanted to be a man called "grandpa!" because I never wanted to acknowledge that the process of growing old applies to me. Now, sometimes, I feel like I could enjoy being a full-time grandpa. I still don't want to acknowledge that the process of growing old applies to me, though. Somehow, having young people in your life kind of keeps you feeling young - when you're not too exhausted to feel anything but exhausted.

Kalib's parents snatch him away from the lawn mower so he can learn how to go to Kindergarten

The boys' mom and dad showed up tonight to pick up Kalib and take him back to Anchorage with them. They are leaving Lynxston with us, because he is still too much for his mom to handle. She is much improved since I last saw her, but still she is very sore and on medication and Lynx is a rowdy guy. Kalib did not want to go. He wanted to stay here. He loves it here - I think in part because of our big, wild, yard which tonight he got to mow a bit of, but maybe he likes his grandma and grandpa, too. He had to go home, though, because tomorrow he starts a "Kindergarten Readiness" program.

He will learn how not to take a nap (I don't think that will be much of a challenge for Kalib. If he took any naps during this longer-than average stay with us, I was not aware of them), how to use a back pack and how to ride a school bus.

That ought to be pretty damned exciting.

They bought pizza for us all and I took a little break to help eat it. They just left. I need to get back to work. I don't want to, but if I work until midnight I can get in two more hours and 20 minutes - if I go until 1:00, three more hours and 20 minutes.

I feel lazy, though. I don't want to do anything, but visit Margie, Lynxton and Jim. But I've got to get this done, so back to work I go. Well, maybe I'll be lazy for a few minutes, anyway, go back into the house and say "hi" to Margie and Lynx. Jimmy can stay here to watch things. Or, he can follow me into the house, if he chooses.

On the day when a new heat record was set, Kalib caught his grandma in a bubble

As I sat sweltering and sweating – literally – in front of my computer, which only added to the Intense heat of late afternoon, a new heat record for Anchorage was anounced on KSKA. Now, keep in mind that during hot spells it is typically as much as 10° hotter out here in this part of the valley than in Anchorage. The record was not for the highest temperature for the date, but for the longest stretch of consecutive days with the temperature above 70. Fourteen days! Right after the announcement, I completed one of the major tasks I had to do today. I could hear Margie, Kalib and Lynxton playing in the backyard, so I went out to see what was going on. I found Kalib blowing bubbles again. I don't think I will post another picture today, I want to leave this one at the top of the stack for a while.

Groggy and listless, I face the day ahead

My breakfast is eaten, my coffee is drank. I am back home, in my office with Jim my good black cat having already taken up his work position. How am I? My head still feels groggy. I feel kind of dull-headed and listless, I wonder how I'm going to do what needs to be done today. I don't feel like I can do it.

Truth is, this is how I feel every morning. I never feel like I can do it. Yet, somehow, it always seems to get done sooner or later. So I guess I will do it. This is basically where I will spend my day. I will take a short walk, I will take a coffee break this afternoon. Sometime in the evening, if I have enough done, I will take a little bike ride to get some exercise. I will watch no TV today. I will not go to Anchorage as I did the last four days. I will just stay right here. I don't think I will be taking and posting anywhere near so many iPhone photos as I did yesterday.

It's going to be Jimmy and me today, sitting right here, trying to clean up and finish off this magazine so I can take it to press before the week ends.