It’s entirely too nice to be sitting inside, in my drab corporate cube, staring at this screen.

July has been odd. Yesterday the temps were only in the upper 70s and the humidity has been very tolerable. Today we’re in the low to mid 80s. I should be on my bike heading west, into the twisty curves of the some nice roads along the Appalachians, or down into West Virginia. It’s simply gorgeous outside.

My poor dog Annie has been having a hell of a skin infection/rash lately. Since March she’s been scratching. I literally mean that. Since March it seems like all she does is scratch. And lick. And scratch and lick and scratch and lick and oh my god I’m ready to go insane. She’s usually worn out by about 10:30 and we get some sleep. But about 5am she starts up again with the scratching, and by now she’s snuck into our bedroom and is scratching (or licking) right at the foot of our bed. Some nights she is scratching so vigorously she shakes the entire bed, waking us up in the process. On a good morning Gail isn’t the most pleasant, add being forcibly awaken in such a manner and she’s just grouchy as hell. At about 5:30 this morning she threw the covers off and stormed out of the bedroom muttering something I’m sure was vulgar and probably involved some sort of evil way to get rid of the dog. Poor Annie, it’s not like it’s her fault. I’ve been trying to remember that when she won’t stop and it’s frustrating me. We’ve spent a ton of money at the vet so far and right now she’s eating kangaroo dogfood to try and get her on a different protein. We’ve done the steroid shots and sprays, baths galore, even aloe vera and coconut oil. Hopefully we find something that works soon.

Gail’s mother is coming into town tomorrow and so this past weekend, rather than cruising around on the motorcycle, was spent cleaning and finishing up projects that’d been sitting around. The hallway is painted, along with Sarah’s room. It was 3/5ths done, and we finally got the other two walls painted the purple she picked out. It really is quite cool. Dark, but cool. I also replaced toilet seats, intake vents and put new outlets in Sarah’s room, replacing the old ones. The previous owners just took the paint roller and went over the socket and faceplate in one swoop. Now it’s nice and white instead of that mauve they had. There was power washing, floor scrubbing, kitchen scrubbing (including the top of the refrigerator), dusting, vacuuming. I imagine tonight will involve some steam cleaning. Wee.

I’ve been looking at trucks lately. It seems the one I want – a Toyota Tacoma Double Cab Long Bed 4×4 in something other than silver – is difficult to come by. At least for the price I want. I can go to buyatoyota.com and build my own to the tune of 30K, but that’s out of my price range. Gail and I stopped by Carmax yesterday and they had one that was almost exactly what I wanted on the lot: 4×4, double cab, red… but the short box. If I get a truck, I want to be able to lie down in the back and close the tailgate. Can’t do that when the bed is all of 5′6″. I guess I’ll keep looking. Maybe if I save a bit more and take advantage of the Cash for Clunkers government program, I can get a new one. I’ve never had a new car before. I know people say you lose a good chunk of the value of the car as soon as you drive it off the lot, but that’s OK. I tend to drive my cars into the ground, putting 100K or more in miles on it, so it makes sense to get a new one. At least to me.

Let’s see... what else can I babble about? Cody’s in summer school again, for failing biology. He’ll probably get an A in the class. He’s not dumb, he’s just lazy. Guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in that case. Because of the F he can’t go see the Green Day concert which we bought him tickets to, as sort of a bribe (pass the class and you can go!). He didn’t, so Sarah and I will probably go, and sell (or give away) the other two tickets. In August my friend Scott and I are going to go see Silversun Pickups, which is just about my favorite band right now. They have a Sonic Youth/90s sound that I really like. That’s it for shows I believe.

And I guess I’ll stop babbling for now as well.