Another Household Tip

When taking out your recycling, be sure to empty your hands of other items that might be recyclable but are not yet ready to be recycled. Otherwise, you are sure to put everything in the recycling bin including the item you meant to take with you when you left the house.

It's only when you arrive at your destination that you will notice that you no longer are in possession of the item you meant to bring. After a short panic and a phone call home to see if the item can be recovered, you will decide you can remember everything that was listed on that item.

Sure enough, when you get home you will find the item exactly where you knew you had deposited it despite your husband's feeble attempts at finding it (did he really look?) and while you will congratulate yourself on not only easily finding the discarded grocery list (and thus, feel righteously superior despite the earlier snafu) but also on the fact that you did remember everything on the list (except the paprika which you didn't really need right then anyway).

Instead, put your not-ready-to-be-recycled items out of the way lest you discover something sticky in your hair the next morning and not know where it came from, forgetting all about dumpster diving the day before.

Follow me for this and other household, recycling, and hair care tips.

My first day of not going to school.

I'm not driving to school today. Or back from it either.

For the last six or seven years I've been shuttling little ones to and from school. These "littles" are my grandchildren and they're not so little anymore. One of them is a senior in high school and drives himself to school. Another recently moved away. And the baby, well, she's not even in school yet.

And, so, on this first day of school I'm not going anywhere.

Before I drove the littles, I drove the kiddos. Ours. That was decades ago, of course, but I wasn't working at the time so I took care of the carpool duties. ("Carpool" might imply there was a cooperative feature but there wasn't. I drove our kiddos and would queue up with all the other parents doing the exact same thing.) It was and continues to be a traffic nightmare that requires spending lots of time just sitting around and waiting for your turn to drop off or pick up. Heaven forbid if the kiddos got out of school at different times or attended different schools. Seriously, how does a parent keep a job when their entire afternoons are spent sitting in line?

Delivering and pickup by drone would give a whole new meaning to "helicopter parent."

So what will I do with all this time I suddenly find on my hands? I haven't a clue although reentering the workforce has crossed my mind. That would get in the way of all the goofing off I'm prone to do but the income would be nice, allowing me to elevate goofing off to a whole other level.

Just now, I'm missing the littles, seeing them frequently throughout the week. That's okay. They're growing up. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to drive some tiny ones someday.

Grumble, grumble, grumble.

But I did it anyway.

Nothing noteworthy but not nothing either.

Maybe I'll do it again tomorrow.

Today's excuse?

All my sports bras are dirty.

Dog Days

They say the dog days of summer are over - they being the Farmer's Almanac.  But they haven't been to Indio, California, where it is said that when God offered Satan the choice between being banished to Hell or to Indio, he chose Hell because it was cooler.

It has been over 100 degrees in Indio every day since July 1, according to Accuweather, and there is no end in sight. According to DesertWeather, the average is 41 consecutive days and we're already there. The maximum consecutive-day streak for temperatures over 100°F reached 71 days in 2020 and I think there's a 50/50 chance that we tie or beat that record.

The record for most days over 100 degrees (not necessarily consecutive) is 143 also set in 2020. So far in 2026, we've had 79 days over 100°F. The first day over 100°F in 2026 was March 17, the earliest on record since 2004 so there's a chance we could beat that record as well.

Dog days of summer over? Not by a long shot.

Stay cool out there.