The heat is here

This past week saw some kind of weather "switch" turn on....

We went from enjoying an extended period of pleasant weather into the oven that is Oklahoma summer.

I think we took 4 walks last week, instead of 10, and no bike rides since last weekend.

Summer in Oklahoma takes all of the wind out of my sails, and gives me a certain kind of head ache that is caused by the heat.  Fortunately, those heat head aches eventually stop when I get used to the change.

I can't mow the lawn anymore, and I can't work in the yard and herb garden, unless it's before dawn, and I am usually asleep when the sun comes up some time after 5:30am.

The past few nights, it hasn't cooled off to below 80 until right before sunrise.  It was 87 when I went out to look at the full moon on Friday night at about 11.

It's stifling, even in the dark of night.

I am SO grateful for air conditioning, but I really don't like having to stay in, and be in an air conditioned environment 24/7.

ANYWAY....After our round of riots, it seems that the continuing protests here have remained peaceful.

We spent much of last weekend glued to the television news, and this weekend, there are no choppers or alerts on our phones.

(we live about 2 miles away from the riot zone).

And, now we wait to see the COVID-19 numbers rise again...exponentially, I would assume.

My blood work came back showing more improvement in my neutrophils, but now my hemoglobin is low.

My nurse said they would keep an eye on that going forward.  If it starts to look like I will need a transfusion, they will probably back the chemo dose down again.

I also spent 3 hours in the rheumatologist's office where my doc sent me. 

I talked to a nurse, then a PA, and then the doctor.  They took a bunch of xrays, and drew 8 vials of blood.  I literally almost passed out.

No news yet about anything, but the doctor said even if I DO turn out to have rheumatoid arthritis, she won't be able to do anything for me because I am a chemo patient.

So, that was enlightening...but I told her that we did need to find out if it's rheumatoid, or if it's just the hormone blockers.

I sure as shit hope my insurance pays for all of that....I'm a little nervous about that, because our friend Rita had all of the testing done, and ended up with a huge bill. 

In other news, my boss called me last week to see how I would feel about going back to work in the office in rotation.  She said that they would never have people sitting next to each other, and no more than two people at a time in the same area.

I said YES PLEASE!!  I don't know when they might start this, but at least they are talking about it.

Unfortunately, however, I fear that if the virus numbers spike up again, they will cancel this plan.

Time will tell.

Remember how our clothes washer and dish washer both died, one after the other, last year?

Then our dryer died earlier this year?

Well, now it's the range.  This is the one we bought when we moved in, because I couldn't stand the one that was here when we bought the house.

SO, this one is only 9 years old, but it's always been faulty in some way.

One of the knobs on the stove broke right away, and of course that wasn't covered by the warranty (I can't remember WHY), so we had to pay for a replacement, and it didn't fix the problem, so that burner just can't be used.

Then, a couple of years ago, one of the oven door hinges broke, after the limited warranty expired, and could not be fixed, so the oven door just makes this awful BANG noise every time we open and close it.

In addition to these issues, the oven has always heated unevenly, and this issue has gotten worse over time.  It's also inaccurate, and has required the use of an oven thermometer to get it to the right temp.

OH, and the paint on the stove top is crazed, and getting ready to peel, due to the heat of, you guessed it, using the stove for cooking!!

Anyway, all of that being said, we were baking our frozen pizza for dinner on Friday night, and the oven wouldn't stay lit, and the house filled up with gas!  Yay!!

We had to finish cooking the pizza in the microwave (we had not ordered groceries yet, so this was our planned dinner, and we had to eat !)

I do not recommend that you EVER microwave a frozen pizza!

SO, we went on the Lowe's website and ordered a new range.

Unfortunately, there is a back log of deliveries because no one wants to pick up their own stuff....so we've now heard, and it will be the 19th before our new range is delivered.

I don't do a whole lot of oven cooking in the hot weather anyway, so that's really not a big deal.  The stove top still works, and I have other cooking tools as well, including my electric multi function cooker.

Now that we've ordered the new one, I am SO EXCITED about it.

This will be, without a doubt, the best range I have ever had!!

It has all of the bells and whistles!  A convection oven with a conversion tool, so I don't burn my food by leaving it in for standard oven time frame recommended in recipes.
It has a cool rack that allows for two full size roasting processes to be going on at the same time (which will come in handy during my holiday cooking frenzy).
The knobs can't break or fall off, they're heavy duty metal, and they're flush with the front of the stove, making cleaning MUCH easier.
It comes with its own custom griddle for the central, oblong burner, so I can relegate my griddle to the cabin camping kit.
It has a self cleaning function that uses water and moderate heat, instead of the high heat most self cleaning ovens have.  You put a pan of water in, set it to self clean, then after it cools down, you wipe it out.  Done. No chemicals!

We used the last of our stimulus money to buy it.  I am so grateful that we had that, otherwise, it would have been another debt to add to the list.

I have missed my chance to do any early morning gardening.  It's time to get a plan for where to put the container garden.  We got some trellises for the climbing plants, and need to get them set up.

There's something eating some of the leaves, and the nasturtium babies, too... so I have sprayed them down with an organic pesticide, and it seems to be helping.

Nasturtium are supposed to protect against pests!  Come on!!

I also need to get the herb plants into the ground, now that they're big and strong....so maybe this evening, I will get out there a little.

Now, though, it's time for late breakfast, and then..well.. not sure.  Maybe I'll take off my nail polish and start fresh.  Maybe I'll pick up a guitar.  Maybe I'll read a little.

I SO dislike being so sedentary!!