Sweltering

Getting into the relaxing mode has never been easy for me. I actually DID go into my classroom twice last week to do a bit of organizing of math materials and while I made a dent, I have about 8 hours more to do. There are about a dozen math games to organize and label. I will be satisfied with the end result. It has been challenging to prepare materials for our new math program (Everyday Mathematics) this past year. Next year will be easier in comparison.

I also did a thorough Spring (Oops, it's summer!)cleaning of my kitchen. That includes ceiling, walls, floor, cupboards and counters. The smell of Murphy's Oil tells me it is spic and span. See what I mean about me and relaxing?

O.K. I won't whine too much but 90 degrees is HOT! One more day of high temperatures and then we ease back to the usual 75 degrees. A good breeze kept it bearable today. I even took an hour this afternoon to just lay in the shade, read a book and look up at the trees waving their leafy green against the clear blue sky. That's rare for me. Instead of looking down and digging in the dirt, I was lolling about on the cool green grass and looking up and around and totally enjoying our lovely gardens. Not that I didn't do a bit of gardening; of course I did.

Along with raccoons, squirrels, 2 feral cats, and a variety of birds, possums sometimes visit our yard.

In fact, this year one particular possum decided to make our lawn his deathbed; during the middle of Wednesday afternoon, WHILE I was gardening. Opossums are nocturnal by nature so we should have known something was up but no, I thought he was just slowly strolling between the lawn chairs and keeling over feigning dead for my entertainment. The hubs gets online and every few minutes he appears at the doorway to the patio to share some new possum tidbit with me.
"They really do play possum, and they are marsupials not rodents, they have a pouch."

A few minutes later: "They have opposable thumbs like humans, the females have 13 nipples."

"Too much information!" I yell.

And still he shares more; "They actually are very clean, fastidious even."

And furthermore; "they have 55 teeth, more than any other land mammal." Just what I need to hear as one is nosing about under the hydrangea only two yards from me, the weeding gardener.

When we went inside for the night we fully expected the toothy, prehensile tailed critter to come to his senses and amble off before morning. I was actually quite sad to see his dead corpse still there, near the lawn chairs. So where is he now you ask? Sometimes having a vacant lot next door is SO convenient.