Finally!

The heat wave has snapped, thank goodness! Oh, it's forecast to hit 97 before the day is over, but I can deal with that. The night should be cool and the following days and nights a tad cooler.

Fortunately for my health, I spent most of yesterday inside good air conditioned spaces. First my car for 45 cool minutes, then the meditation group until around 3pm, back to the car and then I stopped by my cousin's house in Rockmart and had a couple of good, cold beers and watched a movie on TV. Just after I arrived the bottom fell out -- rain and wind and even some good-sized hail. That sort of thing will cool off a Georgia afternoon real well, but depending upon timing and location, it's also possible to end up with an unpleasant steam bath once it passes on by. Yesterday was a good combination of the two, and when I left their place around 7pm my car's thermometer read 73. That went up a couple of notches by the time I left their rural hillside behind and hit town, and went way up to 86 by the time I got home. Maybe Cedartown didn't get quite as much rain as  Rockmart did. My house was a steambath, but it cooled well enough once I got it opened up. More storms passing nearby brought good cooling air and breezes. This morning has been mostly cloudy with lower temps that are steadily rising.

So, there should be relative comfort here for the next few days, until I flee west to very different climes. I'm getting closer to being ready, but there's much that's been left until Wednesday, the last minute. I see the doc to get stitches out tomorrow, will get my hair cut, some last minute shopping and whatever else seems necessary, such as hitting the bank for cash.

After weeks of considering all the possible alternatives for getting to/from the Atlanta airport, I've finally opted for one, with a backup. I can get a local airport transport from this end -- they will actually pick me up at my house, which is great -- but coming back, their last bus leaves 15 minutes before my plane is due in, so I'd given up on that option until my ex-co-worker in Rome offered to pick me up.  So, that's what I'm gonna do. If for some reason they don't show up, I have a fallback plan B, which is the original plan to drive in and park.

I like leaving my car in the driveway so it's not so obvious that I'm not home, and to maybe keep my crazy neighbor across the street from getting stupid again and finding some mischief to get into. No more dogwoods left to kill, and I'll bring tools and such inside, but there are things in the garden he could kill. I haven't seen [read: heard] him for several days now, and since it's too much to hope that he's in jail for the next 9 months, I assume he's off on some kind of vacation.

That's it for today folks -- not much happening.