A #Storm, Too Much Heat, Paperwork, Logan The #Cavapoo's First Bath, The #StLeonards Festival, And Day To Day Chaos

Late last Monday night, and in to the early hours of last Tuesday morning, it got very stormy again. Logan did a bit better this time. He was still obviously very scared, but didn't cry through it all, and even kept falling back asleep (until big crashes of thunder would wake him again). I think Lilie's lack of concern about storms is helping him. I hope that really is the case. We're meant to get more storms in the near future, so I guess I'll soon find out.

Speaking of last Tuesday: the three windows in our place that look out over the ocean give us sun most of the day, and the sun coming in like that makes it often end up a few degrees warmer in our place than it is outside. During cold but clear Winter days, this is a great thing. However, during days like we had last Tuesday, it really isn't. It got up to 23 degrees C outside, and was about 26 degrees C in our apartment. No, closing the curtains wouldn't have helped, despite the fact it would have stopped some of the direct sun, since we needed them open so what breeze there was coming in off the ocean could help with the heat. All of us were hot and miserable, and spent a lot of time hanging out in front of fans. Even with the fans and ocean breeze I felt like I was melting from the heat though. I really don't do well with heat. I felt sorry for the furkids in those furry coats - especially Mollie - and was glad we'd had Lilie in to the groomer when we did. We had shopping delivered, like we do most Tuesdays, and I felt sorry for Kelly bringing it upstairs. I had a hard enough time, and my job is just to put things away.

Wednesday was cooler, though not by much. It was about 20 degrees C outside, and about 22 degrees C inside. It was enough that I was just too hot, and not melting though, which was a good thing to be honest, since the melting human look wouldn't have been a nice thing for the tax guy to see. Yes, I had a tax man here on Wednesday. Don't worry... I invited him. I have someone come about this time each year to help me fill out my tax paperwork. It's got to be done after April, and before November, but one of the documents I need doesn't come until May. I don't like to leave it until the last minute, so I aim for some time in June. Anyway, it's all sorted for another year now.

Thursday was about 19 degrees C outside, and only about a degree hotter inside, so it was nice. I'd planned to make it a day to try and work on some of the revisions for the story I'm working on, but that didn't happen, because I had an audio book sample come in that needed my attention, and the Landlords needed to come for the rent, since they hadn't made it over when they'd planned to the week before (they didn't make it on the Thursday, and we were busy with other things on the Friday). We only remembered after they left that we hadn't given them the letter about the boiler. Oops!

Friday was about the same as Thursday weather wise, though more productive. I actually managed to get some writing time in during Lilie and Logan's afternoon nap. Plus, we gave Logan his first bath. Lilie complained at him being bathed and not her, but it was too close to when she had her flea stuff, so we couldn't do her too. Besides, she'd been to the groomer only a little more than a week before, so really didn't need one. As for Logan... I don't think he was too impressed, as you can see for yourself in this video Kelly did of me bathing him:






And this photo of him in my arms wrapped in a towel afterwards:


But look at how his fur curls when it's damp... It's so cute!


Anyway, Saturday was officially the hottest day of this year, and made Tuesday seem cool in comparison. It got up to 27 degrees C outside, and something like 30 degrees C inside. Yeah, that wasn't fun! Even the dogs didn't have the energy to do much that day, though Lilie was a bit disappointed at missing her walk. It was just too hot to have her walking on the hot pavements though. Anyway, thank goodness for fans, that's all I can say. Also, those of us who could have it (Kelly, Lilie, Logan, and I) were glad to be able to enjoy a nice cold bowl of ice-cream each. No. The dogs didn't have a lot, but I figured a little would help cool them down some. Joshua and Mollie aren't allowed ice-cream, so I gave them some frozen peas instead, which I'm sure they were very grateful for. Plenty of water was drunk by all too, as I'm sure you're pleased to hear.

A couple of local festivals and other events were on over the weekend, but we didn't go to any of them - not entirely because of the heat, though it would have made us stay home if we had planned to go, because of the pups. The parade from this year's St Leonards Festival went in front of our building though, so we got a video and some photos.









I was really proud of Lilie that day. She's hated drums since she was around the age Logan is now, but has gotten so much better about them with all the parades we've heard and seen go by since then. This time, she watched the parade without getting upset about all the drumming. I had both dogs - one in each arm - up at a different window to the one Kelly was taking the video and photos from, watching the parade. Both did so quite contentedly too. I gave them plenty of praise for doing so, especially Lilie, since I felt she deserved it for conquering her fear.

Sunday was thankfully much cooler than Saturday. It only got up to 20 degrees C outside, and it didn't even do that for very long - mostly it stayed between 17 degrees C and 19 degrees C - so didn't really get warmer than that inside either. I'd been awake since even before the dogs get up, so declared a DVD day, and spent the day watching DVDs while alternating between playing with, and curling up on the sofa with, one or both of the dogs (mostly both, though Lilie did go off for a nap with Kelly at one point, leaving me and Logan alone in the living room for an hour or so). It was a nice relaxing day. At least, until the channel I put on for Joshua and Mollie after I was done played a shark movie, which had him squealing in terror. At least, it seemed to be that upsetting him, since he clung to my fingers squealing when I went to check on him, and didn't stop until we changed the channel (which we did in an effort to try and figure out what had him so upset, since we know he has show preferences, so wondered if maybe that was his problem). Both dogs were agitated by him getting so upset, but their evening treat balls soon calmed them back down. Despite it being a quiet and reasonably relaxing day, I was very glad when bed time came, and was asleep very quickly after I was sure the pups had completely settled for the night.

Monday was a bit overcast, and hovered around 18 degrees C until lunch time, before rapidly climbing to 22 degrees C. It wasn't as bad as the other days when it got in to the 20s though, because the fact it was a bit overcast stopped it getting even hotter still indoors, and it actually felt cooler than it had on Sunday. Anyway, Lilie and Logan took advantage of the cooler morning to let off some steam, and ran wild from when they got up around 8:00am until they finally crashed a couple of hours later, causing as much chaos as two little pups can in an apartment. That's a lot of chaos, if you don't know. My living room ended up looking like the dog isles of a petstore had exploded in it, and the other rooms weren't much better. Officially I should have cleaned up when they crashed, but I didn't want to wake them, especially since I'd been up myself since 5:00am, so really needed some quiet time to sit down. I fiddled on the computer instead, trying to catch up with some of the blog post notifications, newsletters, and other things that were sitting in my inbox begging for my attention. I love their chaos, so I'm not complaining about it. But when I get that quiet time while they're napping, I'm not about to waste it. Besides, they're like toddlers, and cranky when they don't get decent naps, which is another reason not to wake them... Especially on days like yesterday, when I was tired myself.

Anyhow, other than those things, my week has been filled with the usual general day to day stuff, like doing the tasks required for properly caring for all of the furkids, sorting eMails as and when I can in hopes they won't pile up too much, attempting - often unsuccessfully - to make sure housework gets done in at least a semi-reasonable timeframe, etc.

So, that was my week. How was yours?