I was going to write a long, whiny post about having no air conditioning and decided it would serve no purpose. Suffice it to say, parts are still missing in action and it’s dang hot in Montana.
Saturday we attended a funeral for the mother of a dear friend. Kathryn was 94 years old and had lived a very good life. Is it wrong to say we “enjoyed” seeing people at a funeral?? We enjoyed seeing all the friends and family–many, many people we have known for years.
In the afternoon the Cowboy worked on the air conditioner install again. I’ve been mowing grass, watering, playing with Emmi, cleaning house, etc.
Sunday we had friends over for lunch but in the morning the Cowboy worked with the air conditioners again and I helped a bit.
And speaking of fall–it can’t come soon enough! Our forecast is awful–hot, hot and no moisture. Each evening we have thunder and lightning–no moisture and the next day we read that yet another fire has started somewhere. For the last few days the wind has picked up in the afternoon and a huge cloud of smoke rolls into our valley obscuring the mountains and making it hard to breathe. Fall can’t come soon enough!
The map below shows all the fires in Montana. A little green flame signifies fires 0-100 acres. An orange square with flame signifies fires of 100-1000 acres. A red square with flame signifies 1000+ acre fires. Green flames are new fires, green squares with flames are new, fast growing fires. Here is a link to the interactive map on the actual website.
There are no fires near us at present. There is a new, small lightning caused fire up the Boulder, let’s hope it stays small. Our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to the fire fighters. The fire up the Boulder was first accessed by three wildfire fire fighters who hiked for six hours with a 2500′ elevation gain. Can you imagine and with those heavy packs??? A fire fighter was severely burned in a fast moving fire near Red Lodge a couple days ago. It’s not a good year.
Covid is still here. Folks near and dear to me are ill with covid, an Arizona friend, fully vaccinated since March/April had covid recently and was really ill for about three days. It’s discouraging for us to hear of fully vaccinated folks contracting covid. But, I was talking to a friend who lives in Spokane and she said, “no vaccine is 100%, I had all the shingles vaccines and I got shingles–a very mild case but I had shingles!” And she is right plus the percentage of those getting covid after being fully vaccinated is about .01% of the vaccinated US population. I’m so over covid!
Restoration Cowboy Style 
Oh goodness! fires heat smoke COVID. no air conditioning? You have a right to a long whiney post! Gak. Scary to think you can get it even though vaccinated. I somehow have let go of my fear and don’t think about it much, going places without a mask and such. Geez. How long is this going to go on? So far, today, we have no smoke, with most of it blowing toward the east from the huge 275000 acre Bootleg fire over in Klamath Falls. I peruse the smoke plume page, the wildfire page, Inciweb, and the weather pages every day…hoping for relief and of course there is none. Except we are in the low 90’s today instead of the 100’s and we have GOOD air conditioning. I guess Sunday must be blogging day. I am putting up a few myself in between trying to read all the blog post notifications I am getting! And I no longer follow more than a handful of blogs!! Hugs to you both…take care.
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No, no relief until we have what they call a “fire season ending weather event”–lots of rain or snow! We too don’t think much about covid now, don’t wear masks–but we may start again!
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I heard of your heat and thought. Thank goodness you have air conditioning!!! We would like to go west, but with all the heat and fires, think we’ll have to wait..maybe December!
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We’ve talked about going to Oregon–to see Dan and Louanne and maybe out to the coast.
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Your heat has made the news and all those fires is scary. Hope you get your AC working soon and that Covid doesn’t get you. We had it back in Dec. and recovered just fine though I lost my taste & smell and some things still don’t taste quite the same. My fear of Covid is gone too and no masks either anymore. We’re just going on with our lives.
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Yes, we are going on with our lives too, no masks but I do have moments of worry. So sorry to hear you had covid.
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I don’t envy you that heat. But you might want to skip the Calif coast. It’s slammed with escapees from central California heat!
I hope your a/c woes resolve soon. It’s exhausting trying to live high temps.
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That’s a good way of putting it Emjay–it’s exhausting trying to live with these high temps–saps my get up and go!
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Hope the cowboy gets that AC working soon and you get some rain to help put those fires out. I spent the summer of 2010 working at the West Yellowstone airport refueling the fire fighting planes…they are awesome.
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You’ve led one interesting life! I feel for those fire fighters out in this heat working so hard.
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So sorry to read you are still having extreme heat and with no AC. Hope at least the AC parts are there soon as we can’t do much about the weather. We always have a mask just in case we don’t feel comfortable in our surroundings and have actually put it on in a crowded check out line where others didn’t respect distancing. But mostly we don’t wear them either.
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I always have one in my purse but seldom wear it now. We talked to the AC parts people today–soon, we hope!
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Drought and heat and fire season and no air conditioning….that sounds miserable. I hope you guys stay safe and don’t have nearby wildfires or smoke this year. The news about covid is not encouraging. Just when I was thinking we might stop wearing our masks when we grocery shop….
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It’s very scary dry in Montana, today we have temps over 100, winds with 50mph gusts, lightning–the perfect storm unfortunately!
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The fires are definitely affecting our plans but so far we’ve not had the smoke – although I think that’s about to change as we move east. Can’t imagine 100 degrees with no AC. It’s cooler in Arizona with at least some moisture. We too enjoyed seeing people at a recent funeral :-))
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It was also cooler and with moisture in Arkansas yesterday. This is just so unusual for Montana–I used to love summers in Montana–no longer!! I thought of you when I wrote the sentence about “enjoying seeing people at a funeral.”
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