This Rose of Sharon is here to tell you it's gonna be a hot one. High today of 99 Farenheit, folks --- though the humidity is relatively low, at 82%, which is something.
I've written all my essays for this week, so can look at next week, but I don't have to be in a hurry. And looking at the calendar, I see that both those essays are reruns which will only need some touching up. That's a mercy. I feel that I've spent all of June trying to keep my head above water after all my May travels --- more than a month later, I think I'm recovered.
So the dog and I will probably take it kind of easy today, with this heat. Today would be a good day to gather her Kong toys and freeze some kibble in water inside them, so she can have fun trying to get it out. As driven as this dog is, I really need to up my puzzle-game game --- a bored dog is a dog who is pestering you to play 24/7, in a manner that's not healthy. Ideally your dog would not be barking at you continually, to tell you to get off your can and throw something for her to chase. We don't actually play fetch much because it's so addictive and winds her up so much, rather than expending her energy so that she can calm down. Setting up puzzle games is another chore, and I fall off the wagon of doing it pretty quickly, but she honestly needs more mental stimulation, in order to be a better dog.
I am also planning our setup for the next time we have people over. It just doesn't work to have her in her crate in the hall, where she gets set off again every time somebody goes to the bathroom. With just one or two people, and with familiar people, she'll calm down, but a houseful the other night just drove her right over the edge --- overexcited and reactive, unable not to jump on people if she was out, barking hysterically when she was crated. So I'm going to get the old, smaller crate out of the garage where it's currently been stashed, clean it up, get a good crate pad for it so it's comfortable and quiet, and put it upstairs in one of the kids' bedrooms. When we have people over, I'll walk her well and make sure she's had her needs met, then crate her upstairs in a quiet room with a puzzle toy to work on. It won't be perfect, but it's got to be better not to have the continual triggers. She'll still bark, but we won't hear it as much. And when she quiets down, she's bound to stay quiet longer, again because she won't be seeing strange people continually and unexpectedly, and feeling threatened in her confined space.
So, since I'm not under the gun, I want to work on some of those arrangements today, so that I don't have to scramble something together the next time we have company. And I want to have more company. We got out of the habit during Covid, and then . . . I got this dog, who is a whole other spanner in the hospitality works. She's great with our extended family, and with our little cohort of dog sitters --- once she knows you, she knows you, and she has a good memory. And once she knows you, she knows she loves you. The problem is that not everybody wants to be known and loved by Dora, especially since you have to put up with being barked at first in a threatening manner, and then she has a hard time not jumping on you (yes, yes, we're working on it, but after 3.5 years it's still a work in progress, and the best thing I can do is try to stand on her leash so she physically can't leave the ground).
AND the problem is when six strange people show up at once --- that blows all her fuses. One or two strange people: okay. A whole bunch: KAPOW goes the canine brain. So for 3.5 years we have been fairly chary about having people over --- for lots of reasons, really, but the dog is definitely one of them. This week I want to devote time and energy to putting some systems in place so that I'm not stressed at the last minute about what the dog is going to do, and what I'm going to do with her.
Praying the Sacred Heart Novena for various intentions, and have also joined a friend in praying the novena to Blessed Carlo Acutis (set to be canonized in September), for the intention of her in-utero twins, one of whom seems to have fluid on the brain and some concerns about brain development. The twins are identical and sharing an amniotic sac, which makes the pregnancy high-risk right out of the gate --- my friend will have to spend some weeks in the hospital before delivering, I presume because with two babies in the same sac, there's a higher chance of amniotic fluid insufficiency or membrane rupture. My friend is in her 40s and is the mother of a large family --- fortunately her teenaged boys are eager, willing, and primed to help with things at home while she's in the hospital.
That's not my only urgent prayer intention, but it is kind of emblematic, I guess. People have high-stakes things going on in their lives all over the place.
I'm going to wash my hair and get dressed.
LATER
Wearing today:
*Secondhand Not Perfect Linen Smock dress (S/M) in Dark Blue-Gray, bought December 2023, last worn June 18. Wears in 2025: 11
*Secondhand Xero Z-Trek sandals, year 1 of wear
A simple outfit, but when the temperature is hovering at the triple-digit mark, waddya want? Ya want linen that won't touch your skin, that's what you want. I am all for wool as a year-round fabric, but when it's this hot, a weave rather than a knit truly seems indicated, for its capacity to stand away from the body. Knits, no matter what fiber they contain, tend to melt into your skin, but woven linen fabric just floats. And this is the floatiest dress I own. I often wind up posing in some way as to show off the sheer volume --- see Photo 1, above. But that's why I love it so much.
It's just too hot to diffuse my hair, since I don't have to be anywhere, so I will let it air/sun-dry and hope, once again, to stave off the scalp dermatitis. So far so good. Washing a little more frequently does help --- and not having to diffuse means that I feel like washing a little more frequently. Hopefully that all evens out. Obviously, on a day like today, I mind wet hair on my back far less than I mind it in January.
Simple wash routine again: Humby shampoo bar (lather x 2) + LUS 3-in-1 leave-in, with plenty of water added. I added extra water after I had combed out the tangles and went through again, informally sectioning my hair and combing it and kind of shaking out the sections with my hand, to encourage some wave definition. Then I scrunched out excess water with a microfiber towel. All of this was quite easy. I was going to comb out my hair anyway, clearly, and it wasn't any trouble to comb through it twice --- I didn't obsess about perfect sections, or even look in the mirror (I didn't even have my glasses on, come to that). And I didn't do any kind of product-layering formula: leave-in + foam + gel. Literally just shampoo to clean my hair and scalp, leave-in to provide slip for combing and some encouragement for wave formation. My hair dries faster with fewer products, especially heavy moisturizing ones, which I guess is kind of a no duh. But life is easier all around when I don't make too much of this hair routine.
And weirdly, I find that my hair continues to be curlier in a more defined way, without my even trying that hard. I think just having it be healthy is a huge part of the equation. I don't have any breakage mid-length, and although my ends can feel a little dry, I don't think they're split or damaged. I've trimmed them far too regularly for that. I treat my hair gently --- no tight ponytails or updos, no tight elastics, not even the coil-type hair-ties I used to use. I use claw clips, which don't clamp down on any one section of the hair to stress it, and I use scrunchies, and that's it. I do comb my hair carefully when it's dry, but unless I'm going to wash the next day, I don't brush it. I don't scruple to pull my hair back or put it up --- some people feel they're going to "ruin" their curl pattern that way --- but only using those particular styling items, with occasionally an updo done carefully with spiral pins. And I think this gentleness has paid off, as has my consistent use of a good shampoo and a carefully chosen conditioner-styler.
Anyway, my under-layers, which have always been straighter, have been a lot wavier in the last few months. I get more true curls through all my hair, not just in the top layer. Much of this I credit to the humidity --- my hair doesn't do this in the winter. But this spring and summer it's been kind of next-level in terms of finding its curl pattern, and I'm pretty happy about that.
The dog is still flat out asleep on her side in her crate, so I am not disturbing her just yet. I think I shall quietly play Wordle now instead.
BEDTIME UPDATE
It has indeed been a hot one. Minimal walking accomplished, but on the bright side, my laundry sure did dry on the line like a champ. I just bought a second set of bamboo sheets for our bed --- the set we have on now are my favorites, and I was so uncomfortable in the alternative sheets last night (jersey that I bought thinking it was 100% cotton, but it's not, boo hiss) that I went ahead and washed the bamboo ones, even though I had only just changed the sheets on Saturday. They're now back on the bed, but we agreed that we needed a second set.
I cleaned up Dora's smaller crate and put it in the dude room --- we got to use it for its intended purpose this evening, in fact, as our electrician friend was coming over to help the husband finish installing a new ventilator fan in the upstairs bathroom. She still barked a lot, but I think having her where she can't see people in the house, and where the window-unit air conditioner provides some white noise, is a better arrangement. It will probably be even better when the people coming over stay downstairs, instead of congregating in the upstairs bathroom.
Lunch today:
It's been a long time since I had tofu, but I picked up two blocks of it in the grocery store yesterday and took the time to marinate and pan-fry some for my lunch. It was quite delicious. The marinade is soy sauce (I used Bragg's aminos, but same thing), a little sesame oil, ginger paste, white wine vinegar, a little honey, and a dash of Sriracha. I cut up the pressed tofu block into chunks as you see here and marinated them for half an hour in the fridge before frying them in batches in a hot cast-iron skillet skimmed with avocado oil and a drip more sesame oil. It came out satisfyingly crispy, and it was especially good dusted with sesame seeds. I ate a lot of it and then was full for the afternoon.
Those are all pantry and fridge staples here, by the way --- not tofu, necessarily (husband won't eat it), but soy sauce/aminos, sesame oil, ginger paste, white wine vinegar (you could also use apple cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar), honey and Sriracha are all things without which this household would not function. This combination of those staples would be good on lots of things, honestly --- it's just a good basic stir-fry kind of sauce. And they're all individually useful as well. I have done lots of salad dressings with white-wine vinegar instead of balsamic this year, for instance.
Still praying for various urgent intentions, including an important one tomorrow.
And so to bed.