Nap Roulette

And other summer delights

It’s hot. 

The Pacific Northwest is hot, California scorching, the East Coast, hot and humid.

Here in the west in addition to the heat we have smoke from the California wildfires acting like an insulating blanket to keep the heat in and the normally blue skis out.

This seems to be the hottest summer I can remember and in fact it is: July 21 was the hottest day on Earth, phew! I’d happily trade places with my refrigerator for a few days. Standing around being cool sounds perfect. 

The little bunnies in my neighborhood are so lethargic they barely glance up as the dog and I go by. Normally there’s a spirited chase but the dog is too hot to pursue and the bunnies too hot to run. Instead they lay in the grass panting. 

But here’s the good news. I have an excuse for everything. 

It’s too hot to clean the house, certainly too hot to cook, too hot to exercise outdoors, too hot to do anything productive.

This excuse thing….I love it!

By 1 p.m. the siren song of my bed is calling and I must answer. Who am I to get on the wrong side of my bed?  I lay down and let the hum of the air conditioner lull me into slumber. Usually I doze off for 30-45 minutes but there are days when it could be longer. Happily I’m not alone in this. It must be popular enough there’s a meme for this called Nap Roulette.

So good.

It’s handy to have a blanket, catch-all excuse. 

When I first moved to Colorado I could blame everything on the altitude. I think it takes about three weeks for a person to fully adapt to living, in my case, above 6,000 feet, but I believe I milked it for weeks, ok, maybe months longer. 

In my younger years, many things could be blamed on P.M.S. Crabby? P.M.S. Can’t fit into my jeans? P.M.S. Food cravings? P.M.S. I distinctly remember being so overcome by my desire for chocolate and salt that dinner often consisted of melting chocolate onto a cracker in my toaster oven and eating several for dinner. Ok, maybe a dozen. So good. It was like a s’more without the marshmallow or graham cracker. Kind of a s’more lite. Nothing wrong with that!

Normally the Olympics inspires me to ramp up my exercise routine but honestly after being completely and totally bedazzled by the Opening Ceremonies I only wanted to catch the next flight to Paris. Surprisingly, I recognized Snoop Dogg as a commentator, earning me a point on my, “I’m-Not-Old-Scorecard.” I already scored one point for the Nap Roulette meme and another one for successfully activating the TV by voice command.

Just as I was embracing a sleepy summer and feeling a teeny tiny bit hip that I recognized Snoop Dogg a new word, “Brat” popped onto the scene. Apparently brat, “simply means having fun and being a little messy.” So now I have to rethink my summer theme: Nap or brat? Hmmmm, I think I’ll sleep on it.