July Sweeps - Day 523

So, I got my shorts all dirty during my hike yesterday--not in the way you're thinking, but more from sitting down in the dirt to watch YouTube until it got dark--and so I got into my suitcase to grab a clean pair of shorts from last year.  I put them on, and discovered three twenty dollar bills in the back pocket.  It was a nice surprise.  Not something I deserve, but hey, I'll take it.

Sit-ups Today: 111
Sit-ups In July: 844

Remember a couple of weeks ago, when all the gnats were flying around, and they were so thick I couldn't go on a walk or run without breathing them in?  Well, they found me, I don't know how, but they found me.  Run for it, Marty!

This is the table I make my peanut butter sandwiches on.

Something I didn't mention last night was that the cabin seemed to have some place where no flies or moths could get in, but the gnats sure could.  While I was cooking rice and soup (it was a cream of potato I'd never bought before--it was on clearance--and shan't be buying again), I looked up at the new fluorescent bulbs by brother installed (four now instead of the two we've always had), and there was about a thousand gnats buzzing around up there.  A thousand is a lot, yes, but later in the night, the thousand probably became five to ten thousand.  They were in my soup, kids.

This is the closed door to downstairs, not to outside.

Today is a new day, and I went to the table to get a donut--part of my weekly tradition, and probably my favorite bit--and found the whole table, stove, and sink was mottled with dead gnats.  First off, gross, but second off, why are they dead?  After I turned out the kitchen light, they could've just had a party, had sex, and talked about old times, but instead, they were dead (a few here and there are still twitching on the ground).  And on the floor was even worse, a coating of dead gnats that I was about to sweep up, but chose to write about instead.  Are their lifespans so short that they all died at once?  Does the light somehow keep them alive and once its gone, they drop?  Is it the opposite, and the light that they're so drawn to actually burns them up inside and they fall dead, like a Japanese fan of BTS?

This is the aftermath of me sweeping them up.

I did go outside later, and discovered piles of dead gnats at the bases of two of the windows, so not all that wanted to get in were able to . . . but they still died.  Could it be that they can't handle the atypical heat this year?  

Push-ups Today: 193
Push-ups In July: 1010

The weather is perfect.  I went out back and read the Andy Weir book, occasionally watching the hummingbird zoom around and back to her nest.  You might not know this (I didn't), but hummingbirds chirp.  I don't know what it means, whether she's calling for a mate, or warning others of my presence, or just singing because her life is good, but I can't say.  Nature is kind of baffling to me.

When I was walking by the lake last night, trying to get some wi-fi before the sun was completely down (I ended up staying on the dam so long it was too dark to down the side of it, so I had to go all the way to the end and then jog to my car), there were three deer walking toward me on the dirt road.  They saw me and instead of running away, like they usually do, just changed their direction and went walking south instead of southwest.  

There's deer next door again, at the neighbor's cabin, a mother and a baby one.  I watched them while listening to Olivia Rodrigo's "Good 4 U" over and over, trying to figure out the lyrics (or maybe I just like it).  The baby one is old enough it no longer has spots, and one of its ears is normal, but the other hangs limply on its head, like it was damaged or born wrong (like you and me).  It was eating flowers (flower season has come to the mountains), but it kept looking up and right at me in the window, either curious about my presence or wondering why I kept listening to the same song over and over again.

I got quite a bit of writing done, just unable to help myself, and would reward myself after writing with a few minutes reading the book, which, both times, resulted in me falling asleep.  I guess a person can't eat that many donuts without causing ill effects, huh?

Words Today: 2264
Words In July: 8790

The wind is blowing good and hard right now--it's 83 degrees out there, which makes it 103 in the city.  It's perfect driving weather.  I think I'll leave now, like it's October and about to get dark, so I have time to shower, exercise, and get some more work done before hitting the cinema with my cousin tonight.  That's right, after fifteen months, BLACK WIDOW is finally being released.  I hope I love it, become a little kid again, and end up wanting to see it a half dozen times this summer.  We'll see.

So, I did a hundred and twenty push-ups throughout the day at the cabin, and it was pure torture.  Then, at two in the morning, I did the remaining 73 push-ups back at the house, and it was no effort at all (I could've done more, if I'd had to).  So it HAS to be the elevation to blame.  There's no other explanation for it.