Life goes on, ya know? It doesn’t care if you’re sick or tired or depressed.

Once again, not to bury the lead. Meet my grandchild, Morgan. Biological sex is to be revealed upon birth which is predicted around Thanksgiving Day. Bwahahaha! Grandchildren are a parent’s revenge on their children.

OTOH, my wife is going to get her right knee replaced on August 2nd. Expect that it will shut her down for a while. Then she’ll need to get the other one done. She will probably go on disability until that runs out, She’s not sure if she will retire right then or if she’ll go back until she hits 66.5, her “full retirement” age.

We actually had one really cloudy day this month. Most were completely empty sky. As days get shorter power production will drop.

The solar energy company says I owe $586 (!!!) for electricity for July and that the bill is overdue. When I look at the statement, it is supposed to be withdrawn from a checking account that does not match mine. I have no idea who it belongs to. Yet when I go to the account summary page is says I owe nothing, but at least it has the correct checking account listed. Both the statement and the account summary are wildly incorrect. Can’t call the company to fix it until tomorrow. Heavy sigh!

The computer was getting desperately slow with all kinds of lockups. I bought an SSD drive just to install fresh Windows 10 on and then a Western Digital Black 4TB hard disk for the user data and all the applications to be reinstalled on. A drive that big is very big overkill but I like the fast access time. Format the old disk and use it to back up my data. (Tempted to go with a 3 disk RAID but I’m too lazy.) Now it boots up in seconds instead of several minutes and I don’t need to go get a cup of coffee while I wait for disk-intensive programs to start.

If I could just get ATT to stop dropping my internet connection several times on some days, I could be a happy user.

This is the beginning of a French drain. First, you dig a trench, however deep you want it. You lay a barrier in the bottom, then spread gravel over it. Then you place another barrier over it and bury that under whatever landscaping you are doing. In this case. it will be decorative rock with stepping stones resting on a concrete base.

Work continues on our backyard. It has slowed considerably. My son-in-law is a monster who works regardless of the heat. We have a big umbrella we move around to keep him under shade and force Gatorade onto him and frozen bottles of water. As the construction site safety officer, I have a rule that when it hits 100F I send him home. Sometimes that is before noon.

I am exceptionally useless right now and can’t really help him.

Portrait of a mother and children.

Our mourning dove is busy raising her second pair of chicks. She left them briefly for the first time a day ago. She needs to be careful. I was sitting by the back door when I heard what sounded like a riot in the house finches who live in a potato vine bush by the patio. I stepped outside just in time to see a juvenile red-tailed hawk perched on the wall next to it. It flew away before I could get a picture. The drought is driving predators out of the hills and into civilized areas they’d never consider going otherwise. Predators need to eat too. That hawk would be just as happy with a small cat or toy dog.

I’ve been doing more free hikes but I won’t bore you with them. Unless something spectacular happens, if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all.

Last Saturday, I went to a show put on by Nude Comedy LA. It was good. I knew most of the people on stage but few of them in the audience. Even got up and did a 3-minute standup routine. Since Feb. of 2000, I have been in a theater exactly twice. Once was with my wife to watch Black Widow and this was the other. Feels like a long time.

How to watch the Perseids — the best meteor shower of the year

Last of all the Perseid meteor shower is coming. The peak will be August 11th thru the 13th but they will be visible to a lesser degree for a couple of weeks before and after. I hope to have a friend or relative stay with my wife so I can head into the mountains to try and catch them. I doubt she will be in condition to completely take care of herself yet.