We are having September-type weather in August. It's weird. The nights are so cool that I find myself closing windows before I go to bed, otherwise the house is freezing when I get up. The days are beautiful: sunny, low humidity, and comfortably in the 70's. Although it feels great to not have the air conditioning on, it is just way too early for this. We are still supposed to be enjoying the pool folks! These nights in the low 50's are killing the pool temperature which has now sunk to 71 degrees F.

Our pool heater installation is going slowly. The heater is in and pretty much ready to go but we are waiting on the propane people (who are due on Monday) to lay their gas lines, etc., and also the electrician to make everything work. The electrician is going on vacation and not due until two weeks from now! Ugh. Dennis (our pool man) said he can rig something up in the meantime to get the heater running. So, we might have a few weeks to enjoy our heated pool before we have to close it for the season right before we leave for Colorado. It has not been a good pool year this year. I'm bummed. But, next year—just think—we'll have the heater to start us out early. Definitely something to look forward to.

Today our friend Carolyn arrives for the weekend. We have plans to go in to the city tomorrow to Chinatown for lunch and to revisit some of the shops that were on our tour of two years ago. It should be fun! I can't wait to eat at Dim Sum GOGO again. This time I also want to make it to the big department store, Pearl River, even if we end up taking a taxi!

Totally unrelated photo: bikes in Cartagena!

I swear, every time it rains, it rains frogs. I can't figure where else they are all coming from if not the sky right along with the rain. We've gotten a lot of rain over the past two days and this morning we pulled back the solar cover on the pool to reveal more frogs. Eleven, in fact.

We decided to do as Carolyn suggested and put them in a bucket. Rick is the official frog-fisher-outer since they tend to gather in the bottom of the deep end. It's a good thing our net has a nice extension pole on it.

Bella was intrigued by the whole thing.

She kept sticking her head in the bucket. Before I knew it, she had grabbed one in her mouth and spit it out on the deck. He seemed to be okay and I just picked him up and put him back in the bucket with his buddies. I don't know if it was the movement that intrigued her or she just likes frogs. It was hard to keep her head out the bucket and I kept a close eye on her to make sure she didn't try to eat another one.

One got away as I was trying to extricate it from the net and hopped off. He'll probably be back tomorrow. Or the next time it rains.

Rick took the bucket-o-froggies and walked their little green butts down to the creek and dumped them in. If the same thing happens the next time it rains you are not going to convince me that they aren't coming from the sky.

We have canceled our Mexico trip officially. We were traveling on frequent flyer miles and if we use them again before May of 2014 we won't forfeit the mileage so that's a plus. We still don't know about the first deposit  on our casita and have asked them that if they rent the house out despite us, could they apply it to future rental. We still don't know the outcome of that.

We talked about all the issues and we both came to the same conclusion: that we should cancel and go at another time. It would have been a nice get-away for us, but other than that we don't have any real reasons for going at this time. Yes, we are considering San Miguel as a winter  residence in retirement, but we are still at least three or more years away from that particular phase of our lives. I think in any scenario that we have to contend with, either putting Alex up at the uncomfortable vet clinic, to the more familiar kennel, or even someone being able to housesit for us, it still boiled down to our comfort level with any of those choices. Alex, although feeling physically good at this point, is still a bit challenging on the eating end of things. I can't put that on anybody else but ourselves.

The upside is that Rick will have more vacation days to spend, either tacking on another few days to our Colorado cabin visit (see? more vacation time!) or just a few three-day weekends and more time at the holidays. 

You might do things differently than us, but our dogs are our kids. Alex has been a phenomenal part of our family for 10.5 years and we just don't feel right leaving him while he is still undergoing chemotherapy with all its ups and downs. 

As far as frogs are concerned, we still fish out seven or eight every morning. This is getting a bit old at this point. We have had a lot of rain over the past few days and rain does seem to factor into the frog problem. Friend Carolyn suggested we collect them in a bucket and take them down to the pond. I have no idea if it's the same stupid frogs each day or different ones (and I know I aided the demise of at least one the other day by mistake) but if we are dealing with the same situation tomorrow morning with no additional rainfall, then we'll collect them and take them down to the pond with us and release them as we set off on our canoe trip around the pond. It's either that or frog legs for dinner tomorrow night. 

Photo: Cherubic fountain at Skylands. 

It rained yesterday—our first rainy day since summer began. It came down softly, all .41 inches of it. I had the windows open but it got so chilly and damp (in the 60's) that I had to close some of them. Weird. We kept the pool covered for all the good it did. Now the temperature is down to 75/76 degrees F. Brrrr.  

We also had to fish out seven, count 'em, SEVEN frogs from the pool and one of them was just a baby. I sure hope they aren't breeding in there. I told them, hey, this isn't a pond, it's a pool! Ridiculous! Of course they all scoot into the deep end to make it even harder to catch them. Rick is really good with the net thank goodness.

 Photo: Splashing fish fountain at Skylands.

Just mostly thoughts today. Our weather has suddenly turned from scorching heat to mild temperatures in the high 70's, dipping even into the high 50's at night. The mornings are cool and and not as sticky. It feels wonderful! But, I am not ready for summer to give way to fall just yet. Say it isn't so!

Although this makes for great windows-open-sleeping-weather, the pool is currently suffering. Now it's down to 78 degrees. However, this week we are starting the process of getting a pool heater installed. We've struggled over the years with the decision: to get one or not? We finally came to the conclusion that pool time is something we enjoy immensely and we are not getting the full potential out of  the pool because of the August downslide. There is also the problem with the beginning of the season and waiting for the water temperature to rise enough to be swimmable. The heater will bridge the gap on both sides, allowing us several more weeks to take advantage of the short season.

As I type, Dennis is out prepping the area for the heater which is due in today. Dennis and Jean own the local pool store, Aqua Tech, where we get all our pool supplies and have our water tested each week. He also opens and closes the pool every year for us. Since we've been on board with them our pool has been sparkling clean with no problems. Not only are they great at what they do, but they are just great people. The heater process will probably take several weeks since we have to coordinate with the company providing the propane and also the electrician. Hopefully it will all come together smoothly and we'll be back to comfortable nighttime laps soon. 

Alex is doing pretty good today. I could tell yesterday that the treatment was affecting him. I could see it in his eyes—tired and not up to snuff, but he still ate his evening meal and was pretty happy other than being a bit more lethargic and sleepy than usual. Since they inject the drugs right into his veins I can imagine he would feel it almost immediately. Kind of like a junkie shooting up (although I have no clue what that would actually feel like).  He has eaten and now his eyes look much better. Just maybe we'll get through this one without any bad side effects.

We're supposed to be getting rain tomorrow which is why I mowed the grass today. It has slowed its growth down and only needs to be mown every couple of weeks now—yet another sign of impending fall. The grass smells so sweet this time of year that I wish I could bottle the scent. I'd call it "Sweet August Meadow Grass."