Heat Wave.

.... and I'm not talking about that 1960s song by Martha and The VanDellas, either.

The weather has been horrid..... terribly hot (way over 100 every day this week) and very dry (the ponds are beginning to look like big puddles again) and even the humidity has been creeping up each day.

The baby barn swallows have been falling out of one of the nests on the back porch...... a nest with five babies is now a nest of one baby. We were able to put two of the babies back into their nests, but they fell out again--- they were literally hanging over the edge of the nest and gasping for air on the day the temperature reached 108. It didn't help that the nest holding those five tiny birds wasn't built large enough for that big a bird family. Two eggs would have perfect, three eggs would have been pushing it, but five eggs was just downright overcrowding.

The last little baby bird from that particular nest has been living on the ground in the flower bed for the past three days. Our outside cat Gatsby has watched that tiny bird but hasn't bothered him. Gatsby has seen me up on the ladder and I have to wonder if he understands that I'm trying to keep that baby bird safe until he's able to fly. Or maybe it's just so hot outside that the last thing on Gatsby's cat-mind is expending energy to trounce on a baby bird. Either way, the adult birds are feeding the baby bird right there on the ground, and I check on the baby from time to time to make sure he's not in direct sunlight.

And in the midst of the heat wave........ the air-conditioning system that covers the 2nd and 3rd floors decided to die a slow death. As of the day before yesterday, we could have erected a tombstone in front of the outside a/c unit. We called the repair guy, who sounds like Gomer Pyle in the old "Mayberry" shows with Andy Griffith. 'Gomer' always tells us that he's on his way...... but we've learned from experience that his "on myway" phrase can mean anything from one hour to seventeen hours, depending on his work schedule for the day. He's a good a/c guy, and knows what he's doing, and won't let you spend money if you don't need to, but he just doesn't have enough workers on hand during his busiest months. So you wait. And you wait.

For the last two nights, we've been sleeping in the TV room..... the a/c system for the first floor is fine (knock wood) and the main level of the house is comfortably cool. Walk up the stairs, though, and you get hit with a wall of heat that just envelopes you...... makes you feel like a biscuit that's just been taken out of the oven and wrapped in a napkin to keep warm.

So we opted for the TV room, even though we have a guest cottage here, plus the guest rooms over the barn. I, for one, do not want to sleep in the rooms over the barn, thank you. And even the guest cottage....... not something I wanted to do. I'd rather just stay in our house and make do with the air-conditioned main floor until the second floor gets back to being cool. As I type, we're waiting once again for Gomer, who said he'd be here first thing this morning. It's 8:30 right now, and in my opinion, we're already an hour and a half past "first thing."

Mickey and Sweet Pea have liked us sleeping the TV room these past two nights. I'm sure Mickey has thought we lost our minds when we moved here....... that cat must truly believe that we bought a smaller house that doesn't have bedrooms because he's only been allowed into the TV room, the kitchen, and the breakfast room. (How's that for a run-on sentence, by the way?)

Last night, I slept on the TV room sofa and Mickey was sleeping by my feet and Sweet Pea was curled up with his head on my shoulder. At one point during the night, I felt Sweet Pea jump down from the sofa and he walked over to my husband and brushed himself up against my husband's back.............. and then he jumped up and curled himself against my neck again. Sweet Pea is such a loving cat....... he is just so happy to share his little cat-life with everyone.

So that's where we are today..... in a house that's broiling hot upstairs, nice and cool downstairs, with two happy cats who like us sleeping in 'their' room as long as we keep away from their own personal cat-beds.