hot vs. not

Yesterday, Lisa and I did some yard work at her mother's house. She has a very steep bank rising on the west edge of her property, and it needed weeding and some small tree work. I got tired and sore, but it was kind of fun climbing around like a monkey at the top of the hill, coming over from the neighbor's driveway above and hanging off of trees, cutting limbs and tossing them 15 feet to the yard below. Lisa did some weeding at the bottom of the hillside. Her mom paid us $25 and bought some good barbecue for lunch.

After we finished our work, we watched the Preakness and then headed home. It was a good day. And our television cooperated in the evening; UNC-TV came in clear and fairly steady, so we were able to watch the Saturday evening PBS lineup of BBC comedies.

Today we're both sore and scratched up, with Bag Balm smeared on our wounds. But we earned every ache and scratch.

And it is a beautiful, sunny day with a bit of a breeze, 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Last night Lisa's sister was telling her how hot is was down in Florida. That prompted me to wonder aloud, "how did we survive down there for so long?" They are already pushing 90 degrees daily, with overnight lows around 70. If we were still there we'd have the A/C running hard already. Here, the heat rarely runs and we haven't come close to needing A/C yet. Our electric bill keeps falling. We can have the windows open a little bit at night to cool the house and a lot during the day.

It is so very wonderful to be living here. I can't imagine ever living in Florida again. The various trees have finally filled out completely. We can't see the river at all now, but we can still hear it rushing along.