Wow – seven days since my last post! I think that’s a new blog-neglect record for me. I wish I had some great or interesting excuse for my absence here, but I don’t. No dog bites. No emergencies. No unexpected company or household catastrophes. I simply didn’t have anything interesting to write about.

In all honesty, I still don’t.

But I do love to write, and I miss you guys. So I’ll think of something.

On the RA front, it’s been pretty quiet. I’ve had a couple of days during which my hands barely hurt and more days during which they hurt constantly but not horribly. The hip bursitis comes and goes. Yesterday was rough; today I’m pretty much over it. I just keep taking my sulfasalazine and Arava, my folic acid, calcium/Vit. D, and magnesium supplements. A multivitamin. Tramadol when my discomfort reaches a level I cannot distract myself from and Vicodin for the fortunately rare, really, really bad flares.

It has been very hot. Low-to-mid-90s all week so far, and today the forecast is for the high 90s (it’s possible we’ll top 100) through the weekend. We have a swamp (evaporative) cooler here at the Wren’s Nest; it cools the house down nicely as long as the outside temp stays under 90 degrees. Once it tops 90 the cooler is pretty much useless. So we’ve been eating a lot of cool salads for supper and generally not moving around very much after mid-day.

I am grateful I don’t live down in the valley, where temps will reach between 102-109 degrees during the next four days. The nights will barely get out of the 90s before the morning sun turns the oven up again. At least up here in the mountains our night-time temps drop into the 70s.

And the 70s are only “cool” in a rhetorical sort of way.

Yeah, yeah, it was only a week or two ago that I was whining about the strange, cool weather and unseasonable rain we’ve been having. I complained even though I knew it wasn’t going to last much longer and that this whomping, oppressive summer heat was inevitable before long. If you could have heard me talking about it (rather than reading my words here), you’d have asked why I was whispering. You’d have told me to speak up, and I’d have shaken my head madly, pointed at the sky and, finger to my lips, shushed you. Don’t tempt the Weather Gods!

Here’s the thing. I don’t mind warm weather. And I really like sunshine. I enjoy soaking up a few rays as I take walks or putter around in the garden. But when warm turns to searing and sweltering and the sun transforms itself into a deadly alien heat-ray, I get a little cranky. I just can’t help it. The Sweltering-Alien-Heat-Ray season generally lasts from May through mid-October in Northern California. We got a long heat delay this year, but that’s over.

This is the reason I’m determined to relocate one more time before I die. I dream (literally!) of living once again in the cool, rainy Pacific Northwest.

And here’s my last excuse for not posting much recently. (Yes, I’m a wimp.) When it’s hot, my Scandinavian genes, which were designed specifically for life in the chilly far north, go into shock. I become slow and sluggish. My brain melts into sludge. All I want to do is find a cool corner where I can curl up and hibernate until true autumn arrives, bringing with it lower temperatures, cool breezes and a reason to put the quilt back on the bed at night.

Well, according to the thermometer on the wall, it’s 80 degrees here in my den as I type this. The cool air generated by the swamp cooler doesn’t reach this end of the house, so I’m going to have to move. This is what I do all summer long: follow the trickle of cool air around and try to make my brain work. Wish me luck.

I hope you’re all staying cool and comfortable, and that the rheuma dragon isn’t biting you too hard. With any luck, the heat will make him sluggish, too!