Glad you got out and enjoyed yourself. Grab those days when they come. Meanwhile I'm happy to read your 2006 post.

We got a slight reprieve here in Walla Walla but only on Sunday, very cool morning and a mere 86 in the afternoon. It's delicious 59 this morning but later back to the high 90's and beyond. Best of all the days of wildfire smoke blew away and isn't back yet.

I signed up for SS online, as I recall, so there was no feeling of celebration. I think that came the day I was driving into Rocky Mountain National Park and the lady at the toll booth asked if I had my drivers license with me. I did, and showed it to her. She then told me that for a mere $15 (or thereabouts) I could by a lifetime pass to All the national parks and monuments in the country. Whee!

Try to stay cool, everyone. We've had some of the same heat -- 90s - 100+ -- in Denver and my a/c can't keep up with that. I start wilting at 75ish, and some days it got up to 79 in here. Meanwhile, everything in my yard keeps growing! Ack! I really don't like summer anymore.

I signed up in person, too, and had a lovely experience with the woman who assisted me. I was still working at the time but preferred to walk through this in person, despite being comfortable with the computer and doing things online. You expressed my reasons very well! As for the heat, here in Pennsylvania we are on something of a break from the oppressive heat. Unfortunately, my AC broke down about four years ago and, since I don't much like AC I haven't had it repaired. This summer has convinced me that it's time to take care of that and the technician will be here tomorrow.

When I retired four years ago at age 66 after 36 years working for a weekly newspaper in Northeast Oregon, there was a retirement dinner (staff only) and the head of the family-owned publishing company declared August 29, 2014, as Elane Dickenson Day in my honor, with a proclamation that listed some of my accomplishments as "where-as", including outlasting "countless editors, general managers, publishers and owners", amassing the institutional history of the county and the newspaper, and "consistently kicking the ass of the competion." I loved it (and I get a life-time subscription to the paper). My daughter celebrates August 29 every year. Social Security, well I enrolled on-line, no big deal, other than it's my main retirement income.

Ronni, if you don’t have a cooling cloth (that gets chilly when wet) they are widely available on Amazon. They provide such relief on muggy nights or when you need to do something outside when it’s super hot, which seems to be the ‘new normal’ in many places.

We’re having similar high temperatures here in the mountain foothills of Southern California northeast of Los Angeles. I go out on errands in the heat of the day, occasionally, though I wouldn’t have to, but I don’t linger long outside the car or my destination. I don’t tolerate the heat as I did when younger, or the cold either, but choose to not go back to the Midwest’s icy cold snowy winters, even to live closer to family.

Wow! This 2006 post to which you referred and I reread surely did bring back a lot of memories. Earlier in the year I had just found the blogosphere and your blog when I was simultaneously learning to use a computer and discovering the internet. I was almost immediately caught up in reading someone who was as interested as I was in the use of language, with whom I shared concerns about ageism and numerous other topics.

I learned bloggers could actually form and be part of a community. I discovered I wanted to comment on this blog, overcoming my reluctance to do so. I learned I could actually write a blog post. I especially benefitted from the support of so many writing at TGB then, including especially RB and Cowtown Pattie, plus welcomed the caring I received when my husband died unexpectedly.

I even began to think I might start a blog of my own, which I accidentally did that I’ve since described elsewhere. I’ve valued ideas received here for action to effect change on matters important to me politically and socially. The news items, information, entertainment, humor offered here and introduction to new interesting bloggers has continued to be an attraction though I sometimes take a break to avoid ..... addiction (really?).

Yes, give yourself breaks, enjoy any pleasant weather and appreciate each day!
A toast to that and to you!

In another life I have central air. In this life, in an older building in midtown Manhattan, even with the window air conditioners blasting and a fan pointed right at me, I cannot cool down enough to sleep well at night. Misery.

Just this morning my husband and I (both early 60s) were trying to figure out how we will bridge the gap from when jobs end until we are Medicare-eligible. Suffice it to say if pre-existing conditions are considered, we are well and truly [expletive deleted].

Re Bruce's comment above, an infestation indeed!
Keep cool, Ronni.

This is not the same south-central part of Nebraska I grew up in either. The average state-wide relative humidity during the day in the summer is 85% (Florida is 89%) The north & west are pretty dry, this area is what pushes that average so high.

When I lived next in a town in Kansas next to the Missouri River during the late ’70 thru the 80’s, I thought I had moved to the tropics. It was such a relief when I would drive “home” to visit relatives, and finally dry off! It was still grasslands then, which have since been plowed under and are now irrigated (and chemigated) acres of corn & soybeans. I’ve heard it called the “lymphoma belt”, and I am one of it’s inhabitants.

Thanks to a diagnosis of CLL three years ago, I cannot handle the heat, much less the humidity. I don’t even drive anywhere in the afternoons - even though my car is reliable, if I had car trouble, or an issue of any kind, the heat would literally end me. I miss the pastures, having grown up wandering through them.

And “thumbs up” to Bruce’s comment.