Estoy Nueces

I've accomplished TWO things that have been on my To Do list for a while so I feel accomplished. I changed the battery on the alarm system (which involved ordering on and waiting on it, watching videos on how to do this, lots of tries to figure out how to get the panel off, answering the call from the alarm company saying, "Your alarm is going off!" and finally getting it changed out and put back together. The other was just the simple registration of the car (which should have been done in May). It's easy to do online and I've done it online for years. Now they wanted me to make an account, which required giving them my email and they send the code to prove it is me. They need my driver's license (it's memorized as it has been mine for 50 years) but they also want a huge number that is on the license in tiny print. Then address and phone and more details and picking a password. Finally they are satisfied and they allow me to sign in.... But to sign in they have to send another email code. Then they want me to set up three security questions. Then they want the license plate of the car and the VIN number. Then we get to payment and I put in all the information and the little code credit cards have and THEN it says, oh, we don't take THAT card. So I put in another and have to get the card to make sure of its little number. I know it is the procedure EVERYONE goes through just about to do anything these days, but it was especially irritating today when I used to just pull up the site, put in a few pertinent details about the car and pay and we're done.

Last weekend I did make myself get out of the house and went to the ReStore and Goodwill and Ross and the grocery store. Lots accomplished. Good thing because that was the coolest day of the week. Sunday I just stayed inside in the AC. Yesterday I actually went out and had breakfast with a friend. That is so rare that it makes me anxious, but I was okay yesterday and we had a good time. She's an old writing friend that I knew before I moved to Austin. One of the very few friends I have up here.... I should cultivate it more. After breakfast I went to a different Goodwill and thrift store and found a few fun things.

Yesterday was the coolest day all week and I got out and planted a few things and cleaned up a few things. Still more to be done, but it was great to be outside and not feel just completely wiped out within an hour. There are thunderstorms in the forecast again and there are no 100s in the week's forecast. I saw a poem today that started out with "Let July be July, let August be August..." That's what I try to do... we know it is going to be impossibly hot, yet we do what we do to survive. You can't change it so you live with it.

Work has been very good this week. We finally got the licensing to a bunch of songs that we haven't had for years now. So now we have to put those songs back into our programs, but we are usually picking a different digital version of the song than what we had before so the new song has to go through the "inspection" process before it goes in. So I've been doing that on lots of country songs this week and enjoying it. Still a million songs to do, but what I was doing was the kind of thing that I could get in a groove and keep my concentration there most of the day.

Monday is not a holiday, but it is an easy day with both jobs. Tuesday is a holiday, but I have no big plans. I am going over to my sister's and probably swim and just hang out. Then we likely can see some fireworks from her house... maybe. There was a time we crawled out an upstairs window and sat on the roof to watch fireworks in the next won. I don't think we are up to that anymore. No other plans for fireworks and I wish neighbors wouldn't fire them late into the night (illegally). It would also be my Aunt Dorothy's 100th birthday. We've celebrated her birthday with her on so many July 4 I will have her on my mind a lot. If she had made it to 100 I'm sure it would be a muted celebration since she wouldn't be quite capable to enjoy it. We had a BIG celebration for my grandfather when he turned 100. He probably wasn't in any better shape than she was at the time. The more I see people approaching 100, the more I know it is not a goal I have or would wish on anyone.