Surprise Visitors

    A nice surprise this morning, the male and female Mallard ducks were back when I looked out early this morning. They hung around for a while (just hope they are not nesting in my back yard), perched on the fence to groom their feathers, then flew off. Quite a treat to see them.

   It was another scorcher today but we had decided to play tennis at 8:00 a.m. By the time we stopped at 10:00 it was getting quite steamy so we were glad to quit and head for somewhere cool, in my case a quick dip in the pool!

What Next?

    What was to be a quiet uneventful day today, turned out to be anything but. My Bridge game today (and next week's too) was cancelled so all I had planned was to do my early morning workout, make some phone calls and walk down to the post office to check the mail box. This is the one maintained by the Retired Teachers group I belong to and is for membership cheques which are starting to arrive.

   After my workout I remembered that yesterday I had noticed one of the front tires on my car looked a little low so I went out to check it. Holey Moley - it was right down on the rim. No way could I drive with it like that! So that was my first phone call, to Roadside Assistance which, fortunately, covered the cost of towing it to the garage.

   While waiting for the car to go, I got back on the phone and made an appointment for the electrician to come and sort out the wiring to my thermostat. He's coming on Thursday. Next I phoned and paid my car insurance with my credit card and by that time it was lunch. After my nap I had a stroll to the drug store to check my blood pressure (surprisingly low, considering) and pick up the mail then relaxed in the garden.

   The rest of the afternoon was a little bit more peaceful except for a call from the garage to say the tire needed to be replaced and they recommended replacing the other front tire at the same time. This made sense so I agreed but then there needed to be re-alignment. Rather a large (and totally unexpected) bill by the time it was all totaled up. Hopefully there will be no more expenses associated with the car for a while.

   The car was ready around 5:30 and an Uber driver arrived to shuttle me to the garage (at no cost, and rightly so since I was faced with a sizeable bill). I stopped in at the liquor store on the way home to stock up on my favourite summer cooler as we are expecting another heat wave tomorrow.

   After I got home I saw there was an email message from the credit card company to say I had exceeded my credit limit and must make a payment "toute suite". So my bank balance is considerably depleted - a fitting end to a not so great day!

Change in the Weather

     Beautifully cool this evening compared to yesterday. I actually did some baking this afternoon (wearing my trusty rubber glove) so finally have something in the freezer to nibble on. I've had the windows open since the sun went behind the houses to the west and it has  brought the temperature right down. The high today was only 26C.

   Tennis this morning and I survived longer again, so all good. It was extremely windy (and continued all day, just now finally calming down a bit) which made tennis tricky. However, we all had to cope with the ball flying out of the court or sideways. The trick was to keep the ball low and still get it over the net!

"Please hold while I transfer you"

    Not much progress on the A/C repair front. I was on the phone for over an hour today with several long waits on hold but, by the end of the conversation, it was decided I will not have to pay for the electrician. However, no date for him to call yet.

    It is extremely hot today (still 31C at 7:30 p.m.) so I am glad of the temporary fix to the A/C. I have stayed indoors most of the day except for an early morning game of tennis - I had to quit after an hour because of the heat - and half an hour gardening in the shade. Not cooling off much overnight and more of the same tomorrow. I did get in the pool for a while after tennis, just to immerse myself, and immediately felt refreshed.

   We had a very violent storm this afternoon with lots of heavy rain and high winds. It didn't last very long and no damage as far as I can see but it didn't cool things off much. As you can imagine, the humidity is sky high so not very comfortable. I hope I can sleep tonight!