Tuesday, June 24 (NH)

It was a brutally hot day. I had a busy day of work, and trying to focus while literally melting in the upstairs bedroom was miserable. We (I) were very worried about Nutmeg, since the girls' bedroom is the hottest during the day. Rabbits should never be in an environment hotter than 75 degrees, and it was easily a hundred degrees in the bedroom. So we relocated her to a much cooler downstairs bedroom for the day.

While Andrew and I worked all day, the kids read and played in the pond. Things got a little out of hand in a way that remains unclear, but it appears Greta pushed Lucia off the dock (a standard part of this activity) and Lucia scraped her shin somehow. It's all fun and games etc etc.

I was so swelteringly hot after I finished working that I decided it was time for my once-a-decade dip in the pond. Greta and Andrew came with me for moral support, and also for physical support, since my abs are still so weak/nonexistent that I was concerned I wouldn't be able to hoist myself out of the pond and onto the floating dock without assistance. 

After some floating around in my inflatable boat, I finally transferred myself to the ladder of the dock and then slipped into the water fully, for approximately two seconds. Then I returned to the ladder and the safety of the dock, and then the safety of being out of the pond.

Andrew and Greta stayed in the pond, sitting on the dock with their feet in the water. All of a sudden, Greta started shouting about the snapping turtle. Indeed, there it was, just inches from Andrew's foot--and just inches from where I'd taken my dip just moments before. THIS IS WHY I DON'T SWIM IN THE POND. In any case, the snapper is back, still alive to terrorize us all for another year. 

Later, there was a very large porcupine at the bottom of the yard. Lucia ran down to take a video of it. It then ambled down the middle of the road.

Apparently the WILDLIFE portion of the trip has begun.

We went out for ice cream in the late afternoon, trying to cool off. A while after that, when it finally did start to cool down, Andrew and Lucia went for a run. We had leftovers for dinner. Then we played Rummikub in the kitchen with a fan blowing directly onto the table. 

It is much much much too hot. This kind of heat usually hits at the very end of our vacation, pushing us from being sad to leave to being anxious to get home to the AC. This should be the last of the extreme heat, I hope.

What We're Reading

Margo: All That Life Can Afford by Emily Everett

Andrew: Three Days in June by Anne Tyler (correction: he has actually not yet started the Proust. He finished Table for Two by Amor Towles and is now starting the Anne Tyler.)

Lucia: Star Bringer by Tracy Wolff

Greta: The Postmistress of Paris by Meg Waite Clayton