Coping with the heat

".. Heat advisory remains in effect until 9 PM EDT this evening...The National Weather Service in Peachtree City has also issued a heat advisory from 11 am to 8 PM EDT on Friday for much of north and central Georgia ... as the dangerously hot conditions are expected to persist.

Heat indices this afternoon will climb to 107 to 111 degrees.

High actual temperatures are expected to reach 102.

The resident fox is hot.



The resident heron is hot.



The resident horse is hot.



The resident cat is hot.



The kittens are oblivious.

Hot here

It's 101 degrees. The heat index is 110. So today I'm wearing Keds with no socks. I was standing in the parking lot at my mechanic's talking and during the course of our 5 minute conversation the soles of my feet got hot.

Gross

Four days into new ownership of kitties, I discovered that they like to hop up onto the bathroom sink and lick my toothbrush.

That new show "Saving Grace"

I like it! I'm a Holly Hunter fan anyway, ever since 'Raising Arizona' and 'Broadcast News', but the show is pretty good. The main character is together professionally but a mess in her personal life, so God sends a "last chance angel" to work with Grace. I'm an angel fan too so any show with an angel from God in it has got my attention.

Quite a contrast to another favorite show of mine, "Touched by an Angel," where the clean and well-dressed angels always smiled beatifically, lit up and said "God loves you." In Saving Grace, Earl the last chance angel who spits tobacco, has a three-day stubble, and is dressed like a homeless man doesn't pull any punches. He looks at Grace and says point blank, "Grace, you're going to hell."

Monday nights at 10 after "The Closer." Boy, TNT sure has some good programming. I'm in TV heaven.

Bert is my favorite

He lays behind my laptop screen. Occasionally he attacks a microscopic piece of lint.

OMG, she's eating CORN FLAKES!

While I eat my breakfast bowl of corn flakes I have to stand in the middle of the apartment, away from any furniture from which the kitties could launch themselves. The two kitties mewl piteously at my feet like I haven't fed them in 2,000 years. The elder disgruntled, who used to get to lick the bowl at her leisure without noisy brothers around, stares intently at me, willing me to remember she was here first. Luke actually goes bonkers at the smell of milk. If I sit down at the table like a civilized person Luke would launch himself into my bowl right while I'm eating. I know this from experience. It wasn't pretty. At least the laptop survived.

My new kittens

I rescued two kittens yesterday. Goodness knows how three indoor cats and me will live in a two-room studio apartment...and will Abby ever get used to her new brothers? All she has been doing for 12 hours is spit and hiss. The kitties were raised in a vet office so they are unfazed at any animal, so I am hopeful that as the new ones continue to ignore her that eventually Abby will learn to share her space. Luke and Bert are 10 weeks old.

Luke. Note the T-P tube for scale.



Bert

More about my family

Left to right, at my first birthday party, my father's sister Norma, my mother's mother, my paternal grandmother Viola Bernardoni Prata, her sister Lena, another woman who wishes to remain anonymous, and my great-aunt Nellie.


My father reminisces:

"Last year was the 100th year for Prata Funeral Homes which Great Grandfather Raffaele established in 1906. It was a storefront which had a desk and layout equipment. All wakes and funeral were held in houses then. He was the first funeral director in RI to build a funeral home from the ground up - in West Warwick."

"My Grandfather built four funeral homes. I eventually expanded the number to 9 then consolidated a couple to net out at 7."

"Your great grandmother Vittoria (Giannetti) Bernardoni was a very intelligent woman. Came from Tuscany. She started a meat market, bought a 3 decker home and rented out two floors. She made enough money to buy her son Rico a brand new car for his 16th birthday!! She died quite young - diabetes. All the Carlotti's prospered - doctors, businessmen, lawyers etc."

Interesting family, no?

The Mexican Hat travel story

The airport at Athens GA is so small they call it a "Flight Center." One clerk, one counter, and not even a full length counter at that. One TSA agent, a dozen plastic seats in the waiting area, and a few 19-seat turbo prop planes sprinkled on the tarmac and there you have it.

Last night I was there with some friends who were picking up a friend. A 19-seater was just deplaning and entering the waiting area. It didn't take long for the few travelers to scatter, but there was one young man left behind who was walking around in circles. He was holding an oversize Mexican sombrero. I laughed and asked him, "Did you bring that all the way from Mexico?" He said yes.

"Well, that is a well-traveled hat. Now it's in Athens Georgia."

A look of shock crossed his face, and his mocha colored skin turned white, then green. With an accent, he said, "Athens?"

"Yes"
"Georgia?"
"Yes."
"I am going to Athens Greece."

We three launched into action. I heard the tell-tale clatter of the shutter being brought down over the counter. I knew that there would be no hope once the clerk left. The small airport is devoid of taxis, is in an outlying area, and there is no hotel within walking distance. Taking him by the elbow we brought him and his now bathroom emerged girlfriend to the counter and explained the situation. The clerk said to us that it happens more frequently than one would think.

The Greeks call their country 'Grecia,' so 'Athens GA' might have made sense to the two youngsters from Mexico. I don't know. As we left, I glanced back and the view of two kids standing shoulder to shoulder and leg to leg, spines stiff but knees shaking, talking hurriedly to the clerk, haunts me now. Now I wish I had stayed with them until their flight was resolved. I would have taken them home and brought them the next day to whatever airport they needed to go. I think it's important that people know that no matter how lost they are in the world, they will always be found.

Longing for the ocean