I finished my second Saturday at my half-time job yesterday. I am starting to feel a little more comfortable at the job, though working for less than 20 hours a week slows the whole process down a bit. It should be a good challenging job with lots of opportunities for growth and such like. I think my fellow workers are just fine decent people. I am enjoying work as well, and that is great!

The last two weeks were a little cooler, though it has warmed up again. We had some rain last weekend that turned everything green and flowery once more. I suspect that will change as they dry out and fall starts to come.

I started classes again (lots of agains in this post, huh?). I have not done much work on them just yet, but I will be getting to it this week (starting today).

Almost got run off the road on the way to work yesterday. Ding dong in a big red Silverado with a chrome cow catcher passed me in the left lane and before he was even fully by me started to drift into my lane. No signals, no warning just drift. I had to slam on the brakes or he would have hit me. He never looked in his mirror or took his phone down off his ear.

A little bit of good news tonight, I have a full time part time job working at a community college library as a reference librarian. I start in a few weeks.

It is going to be great to have a few dollars coming in finally!!

Still warm here with little relief in site for the next few weeks.

Still hot here, highs over 100, lows of 80. Our friend the raccoon visited again last week, but this time he/she stayed until dark. It came up to the bird bath, sipped a little water, and then climbed the oak tree right beside the bath and settled down into the tree where a natural nest exists. For the rest of the afternoon, we would look out and see a foot stretched out, a tail dangling down, and sometimes two feet and a paw.

It has been so hot and dry that even some of the trees that are natives are struggling. Singed leaves, droopy leaves, brittle leaves, all of them fighting the dry heat. Smells like a dessert here, hot dry dirt baking in the sun.

I went off on a job interview last week (still waiting on news) and saw the big combines out harvesting. There was a lot of sorghum planted, at least along the road. I even saw a real John Deere boogying along the road moving from one field to the next. I say real as many of the tractors around here are the tiny acreage types. This was one of the big, newer tracked tractors pulling a big big disc.

I am off this morning to write a practice test for the teaching test. I know I won't pass this version (no way I have memorized all the formulae and such), but it will, hopefully, give me some areas to focus my studies on so I can write the real exam in the fall.

The full weight of summer has descended upon us. I would like to complain, but summer is summer and I have become accustomed to the heat.

A raccoon came and drank out of our bird bath last night. The poor critter looked rather ragged and hot. It must be rather miserable to have to slink around in a heavy fur coat all day long. Birds and squirrels come and go all day long muddying what water remains in the bath by lunch time. I usually go out and add water around that time, and then again after supper.

I water the tomatoes every morning and by the afternoon they are all wilty and sad looking. There is no way to keep the soil moist enough at the moment. We had a decent tomato harvest even if they are suffering from the heat now.

Everything else has normalized now. I am studying for the teachers test and getting ready to return to school. It is amazing how much I remember from way back when.

Working the bookstore again. It was warm today, the last I heard it was 103.

I took C to Hot Springs Friday and came home yesterday. I am still a little tired from the trip, guess I don't travel as well as I once did.

I am stirring this using a cheap smart phone, so please forgive the errors.

Not sure if our plants will survive the heat. Every time I look outside they appear wilted and stressed.

Here is a photo of our garden this morning. Looks a lot more lush than I expected given it is mid June in Texas!

We did not make the trip east to see C's parents. Her mom fell Friday night and was not feeling well enough to have visitors come stay the night so we stayed home.