Hosed

Before I tell you about today's sewing adventures, I want to tell you a little about our 4th of July celebration. In a word, it was hot. Hot, hot, hot. (Technically, that's three words.) The actual temperature probably didn't reflect how uncomfortably warm we all were. The humidity was the culprit. We were all grateful for our Arctic Chill Towels. Erik and Mike were particularly stylish in theirs:

Obviously, Erik has his on his head. Mike has his draped rakishly around his neck. First, you saturate them with water, and then wring them out. They are damp, but not uncomfortably so, and they don't really wet your clothing. As they dry, they feel cool against your skin. When they stop feeling cool, you simply snap-stretch them out again, and that re-cools them. Eventually, they become too dry, and you have to re-wet them. We were wetting them with the ice water in our ice chests. Ahhhhhhh...they made the heat bearable.

Aside from our cooling towels, we had a pop-up canopy we kept adjusting for the angle of the sun. Mae had her own private umbrella canopy. It kept the sun off, while conveniently showing her Oregon State colors.

As you already know, we had a couple of side salads and some blueberry hand pies. Erik barbecued some delicious ribs that were marinated in an Asian style marinade. Dee-lish.

When the sun went behind the buildings, the temperature dropped to a very comfortable level. In previous years, we sometimes donned coats at this time of day. No need for that yesterday. The night air was delightfully comfortable after the hot afternoon. The barge pulled up directly in front of us as we waited for the sky to darken.

We were treated to a pretty sunset, and about an hour later, the fireworks display started.

A few more of Erik and Mae's friends joined us toward the end of the day. You can see their heads at the bottom of the image. It was a long and hot day, but enjoyable as always. I don't know why, but the time passes quickly.

This morning I stitched up the June stitchery for the Vintage Kitchen quilt. I'll finish July's tomorrow.

Then I went back to work on the To the Rescue quilt. Today I made the two hose applique blocks.

And then two stars. Actually, I made three stars because one of them had a brown spot on it that seemed to materialize out of nowhere. I tried dabbing at it, scratching at it, scraping it, coloring it, yelling at it, threatening it, stomping on it...all to no avail. And in the time it took to do all of that, I could have simply made another one, which is what ended up happening anyway. So...I present to you two hard won stars.

Then I was ready to sew together Section B,

which was sewn to the right side of Section A, finishing the upper section.

Then Section C was pieced together.

Then I laid the four completed sections together, and that was where I left it. 

There's still time to do a little more sewing today, but the air-conditioning in my basement sewing room had me shivering with cold. I needed to move to a warmer part of the house.

Since there's nothing else on my agenda for tomorrow (except perhaps some laundry), I think it's a good bet I'll get the top finished. I still need to make another fire engine identical to the one in Section A, and there are three borders, which always take longer than you think they will.

While I've been sewing, the Resident Engineer has been installing a ceiling fan in our bedroom. This is a project that's been on his honey-do list for approximately eight years. It has taken record-setting temperatures during the month of June to move the ceiling fan to the top of his very long list. That's not a complaint...would I do that? No. It's just an observation that the blades on the fan sometimes turn very slowly. So, here it is. Nice, eh?

And while you're admiring the ceiling fan, be sure and cast your eyes to the right where the window was replaced last month. You can actually see through it now!

When you live with a Resident Engineer, your walls often look like this. Engineers are nothing if not excellent interior decorators.

And they love their remote controls. We have approximately 874 remote controls in our house. Make that 875, as of today. I gave up trying to understand which one went with which television, amplifier, fireplace (really!), kitchen appliance long ago, let alone how to operate any of them. Nevertheless, I think I can handle this one. The large round button at the bottom is to turn on a light (if we had the one with a light, which we do not). Then starting with the littlest button they go in this order: Off, Slow, Medium, Fast. I think even my feeble mind can comprehend that level of difficulty.

After he had it installed, he laid on the bed and took a nap while it blew a nice breeze over the top of him. He declared it heavenly. After waiting eight years for it, I just know I'm going to like it too.

That brings you up to date on happenings at the Three Cats Ranch. How are you spending this 5th of July?