All in all... Life is Good

Just been a weird summer... with Noah and Thomas living here our unstructured "whatever" lifestyle has changed... Fortunately, I do not have to rise in the middle of the night if he wakes (his Dad does that) and we only give baths, change diapers, and play with him when we want (so, OK... that's virtually all the time he is awake -- but who's counting?) Thomas is such a delight -- a bubbly and happy personality (with a streak of temper thrown in). Started crawling last week and is already testing his "let's see how long I can stand up here balancing without falling down" legs. He definitely has a "need for speed" streak in him as well!

The other day I am sitting out on our lovely shaded deck (reading, of course) and suddenly there is a "whump!! whump!! whump!! noise from below. Looking over the rail of the deck (which is ground level in the front but 2+ stories in the rear), I note that the compressor unit for the new AC has stopped. I quickly run in the house turn the power switch off. Noah emerges and looks down into the unit and says, "I think that looks like blood on the fan blade... Maybe an animal got in there?" I point out that the vents into the unit are very narrow and can't imagine an animal could get in there. The DH and son putter on down to stare in through the top vents -- and sure enough THERE IS A SNAKE (or what's left of it) impaled on the blades and strewn about. The AC company will be out tomorrow. We have lived in our house a few years now and while we have had one encounter with a rattlesnake (the first year), this is the first year we have seen these very long and thin garter snakes (probably black-necked garter snakes) -- but we have lost two on the roadway in front of our home and now this third to the AC. UPDATE: No damage to the AC... snake crawled in through a vent at the bottom of the unit... which we have now screened...

Evenings are so cool and lovely here that we open most of the windows in the house each evening when the sun dips behind the mountains. While opening the blinds in one of the bedrooms last night, we discover a very large pile of what appears to be spun cotton... after a bit of investigation, we discover THERE ARE TERMITES (or some kind of tiny ant) crawling in and out of the window frame! Exterminator will be here in the morning. I really want to vacuum the debris and the insects from the seam of the window, but the exterminator implores me to leave it all there as he can get a tremendous amount of info from the construct and debris. Yuk. UPDATE: Not termites. Carpenter ants. Really, really tiny carpenter ants. Probab;y thousands in the wall. Same result -- drilling holes all over the wall, inserting foam insecticide, close holes; hope we get them all. The wall will have to be spackled and painted (sigh). Chance to change the color of the wall anyway. Oh, and $500 just for the treatment. Ahhh, the joys of home ownership!

I am not particularly skittish with insects, but last week we had a mid-sized scorpion in the garage (they principally hide under large rocks outside and stay there (never work outside w/o gloves); the yellowjackets have arrived earlier this year and we've had to put up traps adjacent to the decks to keep them at bay... the javelinas were grunting and snorting at 1:00AM out behind our property which always sets our large dogs to barking and whining to go outdoors... next, the coyotes were out until well after sunrise this morning and around 8:00 across the roadway from us -- but the howling and yipping they do not only terrorizes their prey, it makes my hair stand on end as well. On the up side, we have a much larger than average influx of hummingbirds and migrating birds this year; the red tail hawk pair has an offspring hunting our land... and a small falcon arrived yesterday but I have only seen it from a distance and at a speed that has prevented me from identifying it (yet).

In the last few weeks I have tried to catch up on my reading stack and have read House to House, Lone Survivor, Final Salute, Odd Hours, Touching History (a must read for anyone interested in what transpired in the skies on 9/11/01)... as well as a few junk paperbacks -- because sometimes I need a break from the other books I read. I am about to start a politically-orientated book... and thinking about taking on a volunteer position with a Presidential campaign...

We have the daughter's 2009 graduation date from medical school... Navy son's ship is in dry dock so no new deployments (surge or scheduled) over the holidays this year (yeah!!) Weather is great... family member's healths are good (except for middle son with the flu of all things)... McCain's currently ahead in the latest polls (for what polls are worth)... All in all... Life is Good.