Getting out the Coats and Mittens

This will garner little sympathy from anyone who lives where it is really cold, I know, but it is cold here, too. This morning when I let The Boy out to do business at five o'clock it was 79° out! And no humidity. And there is a cool, arctic breeze. Honestly, anything less than 88° and I have got to have a sweatshirt on. We start getting down to the 70's, here, and I've got the heat on and am adding extra blankets to the bed. It most definitely is "fall" in The Sandbox. Summer is over. There will, thankfully, still be a month or so of days left that I can sit by the pool - and perhaps dangle my feet in - but the water is not warm enough to be floating around in it. I am a wimp that way. I don't get in the pool unless it is at least 86°. As long as it warms up a good fifteen or twenty degrees, today, then I will be able to "work" by the pool and finish a great book I'm reading - one of many I brought back from the States on our recent trip.

Today is our "Sunday," here. It is Friday. Tomorrow, Saturday, is what would be "Monday" in the States - the day everyone starts their work week or goes back to school. But, tomorrow is the last day of the Eid celebration so it is a holiday. I so want to do some errands downtown, and until things are back to "normal" here, there is just no way. Paint. I need paint! Oh, how I miss Home Depot!!! Getting paint will require several trips downtown - and finding the "right" color will take me a week. I want to have some window treatments made for the living room / dining room, and some lampshade made for the bedroom. That all just sounds so simple, doesn't it? And it should be. But, it won't be. Oh no. Not here, it won't.

Forget the simple fact that I can't just jump in the truck and drive myself downtown. I must have a driver - or depend on DH. Getting a driver is easier. DH does not want to go from shop to shop because I need to find the "perfect" fabric for window treatments. DH would rather crawl across pavement covered with broken glass on his knees in the heat of the summer with no water to quench his thirst than take me downtown so I can traipse from shop to shop looking for fabric and figuring out what I need for the windows - as far as design - in the living room / dining room. Compound that obstacle with the fact that most shops don't open until nine and some even later - ten - and then they close for prayer at 11:30. That gives me an hour and a half - two and a half hours at the max - to get done what I need and want to get done. About impossible... I realize we have only 3 years, 5 months and a week left on the contract for this house, but I still want it to be home, and it needs window treatments! Will the frustration that I suffer through be worth it? Yes. And besides, it will give me something to gripe about and fodder for my blog...

The Kids have a new playmate! A friend brought a Giant Schnauzer puppy back from the States - the puppy is now eight months old - I'll call her "Nuffie" - and The Kids are so enjoying romping and playing with her. It is precious to watch. We are all going to walk together this morning and if we schedule a play time for this afternoon, I will MOST DEFINITELY take pictures. Nuffie and The Baby are about the same size now, but Nuffie is going to be quite a bit bigger when she is full-grown - she won't, of course, ever be as big as The Boy is, but few four-legged kids are, and certainly none that live on our compound...

And that is it for life, today, here in The Sandbox...