Dog Days of Summer

Not gonna lie, July was rough. It was hot as hell. There were 12 days above 90 degrees and only four days with a high less than 80. I know I'm spoiled here in the great PNW but that is much higher than average and simply unacceptable.

And work was... bad. My boss was laid off. My former boss was laid off. The boss who hired me 7+ years ago was laid off. My mentor, universally recognized as extremely amazing, was laid off. And a passel of other really good people were laid off: a "cost-cutting exercise." I wish more attention was paid to value. The rate of voluntary turnover is just as bad, maybe worse. Work is sort of a sad place these days and I'm starting to doubt my ability to do good things for the universe.

National Tequila Day is July 24. July required tequila.

Family life was a circus. A complicated wedding in one branch dominated the weekends for months before culminating in a week of uninterrupted hoopla. Another branch held a set of parents demonstrating an incapacity for continuing their present lifestyle, combined with a loathing to acknowledge reality, woven all together with incredible anxiety and unnecessary drama. That's all I'll say about that.

We had a nice four-day-weekend camping trip planned in the middle for the Wild Woman Trail Marathon. This was near Trout Lake, WA at the foot of Mt. Adams, just north of Hood River and the Columbia Gorge. It was a lovely group of women in a gorgeous location but it was, see above, hot as hell. Given the shenanigans of life, I wasn't in great shape. It was hot. It was dusty. I slogged through 15 miles of sandy, uphill, exposed, trail. I was slow, my partner injured and we were officially DNF ("did not finish"). My lovely hubby and super, but geriatric, poocher nearly died of heatstroke. We came home early.

I haven't posted to Wayward P in a while. I haven't done my online classes. I' haven't even been playing with glitter in my book trade art project. Most concerning is that I feel my sparkle flagging.

But I am buoyant. I chopped off my hair, got my Kindle loaded with a batch of books (Olive Kitteridge, Skin Tight, Taft, You Suck and Death in Holy Orders) and signed up for the Silver Falls Half Marathon. I'm running with new and old friends, baked a wedding cake and had "the talk" with my parents. For the first time ever, I'm welcoming slightly darker mornings, earlier sunsets.

I'm longing for a cold rain.