Bees

God, how did I not see that!? A big beehive in the bug-lamp on the porch. I consciously checked it out when I was looking for hives, thinking it a likely place. Well, I hope I finally wiped out all the nests in the area, but I continue to wonder why they don't use the trees, where one is not inclined to climb and dig through branches and leaves for such nests. Maybe they do, but since these seem to be pretty non-aggressive bees, maybe it hasn't been a real problem. Indeed, I am tempted to think that I could have gone on ignoring this hive forever, and so long as we kept from freaking out when they hover near us, everything would have been fine. But they have weapons, and I cannot take that chance.

Fourth of July

Augh, I almost forgot that it's the fourth of July. Since it's almost seven o'clock in the evening, I was thinking about letting the cats out. I'm surprised that I didn't forget. It just popped into my mind, like I imagine it's supposed to do when you are not suffering from some sort of memory impairment. I want to protect the cats from being bombed by fireworks, despite the fact that they will only spite me for it.

Watering

I'm watering. Pop gave the okay. Since the deluge of May, aside from a couple of brief sprinklings, we have been bone-dry, and it looks it. We are also in the middle of a week of 100-degree days, at least a week. Aside from the little side-long strip from the back-gate to the patio and the trees, I wanted to give the lawns one decent drink of water. It should give the grass another lease on life, but it surely won't be enough to take care of the cracking-up of the ground, not to mention the potential problems for the foundation of the house. But water costs, and they have been raising the price of it in big jumps (we must satisfy the expectations of those office heads to lead big lives), along with everything else.