Dog Days of Summer

[caption id="attachment_2199" align="alignright" width="158"] Stinkin' hot (technical term)[/caption]

The dog days of summer last from July 3 through August 11, which coincides with the rising of Sirius, the Dog Star (I didn't just happen to know that--I read it on The Old Farmer's Almanac).  The dog days also tend to be very, very hot.  As I write this, it is about 104 degrees out on my porch here in Vacaville.  The air conditioning kicked on at 7:00 this morning, which is never a good sign.  When it's this hot in Vacaville, I always think it's kind of the equivalent of getting snowed in, since you pretty much have to stay indoors.  For me, personally, having to stay inside is not a terrible hardship. Staying in the air conditioning, reading, sounds like a pretty good day to me.  The rest of my family, however, begs to differ.  So we went on a field trip.

First order of business was finding somewhere cool to go.  Thus, off to the beach.  Almost two hours from Vacaville, you will find Bodega Bay.  And if you stay on Highway 1 just past Bodega Bay, you come to Sonoma Coast State Park.  The park  consists of a series of beaches.   The

[caption id="attachment_2204" align="alignleft" width="300"] This would be the wine country...[/caption]

drive is a nice one, not too windy (car sickness always an issue), through California wine country and California milk country. Rolling hills and eucalyptus groves, abandoned barns, tiny towns, and swanky wineries all nestle together in this part of California.

[caption id="attachment_2205" align="alignleft" width="300"] ...and this would be the milk country[/caption]

Before we went, we checked the Weather Channel, and they claimed it would be 80 degrees. We were suspicious, but since it was so hot here, okay, it sounded plausible that it could be that warm over there.  Usually when we go to the beach I pack just short of what I'd need for an arctic expedition, but this time I didn't.  Well, long story short, I should have.  It was freezing!  And me only in a light little cardi!  But really, we didn't mind.  It felt good to be cold!  We had long pants on, and when we were sitting we draped ourselves with the towels I'd brought to dry off after wading in the water.

[caption id="attachment_2216" align="alignright" width="180"] Pebbly beach (different from Pebble Beach)[/caption]

The beach we go to, and that my family has been going to for more than 40 years, is Wright's Beach.  It's got some sand, but most of the beach is pebbly, which I like. It's got picnic tables out on the beach, as well as up by the parking lot (where it only costs $8 to park all day), and it even has bathrooms that, while not glamorous, are certainly better than, uh,  finding a big rock. You can camp there, too, but we've never done that.  Part of the charm of the Sonoma Coast is that it is easy to get to for a day trip, which certainly keeps the cost down.  And I think we all know how much I need to sleep in my own bed.  And not in a sleeping bag.  Ever.

We brought a picnic, which consisted of Ginger-Soy Marinated Spicy Steak Sandwiches, Confetti Orzo Salad, potato chips (you just have to have potato chips on a picnic, in my book), grapes (same), and molasses cookies for dessert.  It was all quite tasty.  After lunch there were strolls on the beach and a rousing game of paddle tennis. And then, just when the fog

[caption id="attachment_2215" align="alignright" width="300"] Shortly after I took this photo, this rock completely disappeared in the fog![/caption]

usually starts to lift, around 3:00, it started to roll in!  About half an hour later, though, it rolled back out, and we could even feel a little warmth from the sun peeking though here and there. It's a beautiful part of the

[caption id="attachment_2219" align="alignleft" width="321"] Look! Wildlife! A pelican![/caption]

state, and certainly

[caption id="attachment_2223" align="alignleft" width="321"] More wildlife! Seals![/caption]

worth the outing.  Driving back along the coast, the fog had completely lifted, and you could see the beautiful scenery.  And once we got back home, the heat didn't feel quite so horrible.  I mean, you know what they say, "For sleep, riches, and health to be truly enjoyed, they must be interrupted."  I guess that goes for weather, too.  Even the dog days.

Heaven?

[caption id="attachment_2150" align="alignleft" width="275"] Maybe someday this will be heaven.[/caption]

Now brace yourselves: I've been doing a little exercise.  I go out early in the morning, when it's a bit cool still.  There is a faint breeze.  I feel the warm sunshine on my face, and I listen to the beautiful songs of the birds.  And it is, honestly, sheer h...HELL.  No, it's not heaven!  It hurts! I gasp for air like some kind of dehydrated fish, and I feel like I am staggering along, raising up clouds of dust, barely able to put one foot in front of the other.  But today, instead of my exercise mantra being "thissucksthissucksthissucksthissucks" I started thinking about other things. I started pondering all the things that make me happy.

No one else can make you happy.  It's a job for you and you alone.  When I thought about pleasant things this morning, the exercise period went by much faster, and I didn't notice the pain so much.  And so it is with life--make choices to notice the pleasant things, rather than all the things that suck, and your time here on earth will be so much more enjoyable.

Look, I have almost no disposable income. Any entertainment I have is on a rather frayed shoestring.  Are my relationships blissful and trouble-free?  Not exactly.  But I can make the choice to find enjoyment in certain things.

[caption id="attachment_2129" align="alignright" width="300"] Heaven is a baseball field in a converted cornfield in Iowa? I don't think so. This, my friends, is heaven.
A little gin, a little tonic...ahhh.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2136" align="alignleft" width="300"] Or maybe this is heaven, just back from the library.[/caption]

My friends, my books,

[caption id="attachment_2170" align="alignleft" width="225"] Ohhh, the smell, the taste of fresh pizelle cookies...heaven, of course.[/caption]

my cooking, my adult beverages, my cozy

[caption id="attachment_2141" align="alignright" width="225"] No, wait. THIS is heaven. For sure.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2167" align="alignright" width="300"] Heavenly sunset? A cliche, but true nonetheless.[/caption]

home--they all make me happy.

[caption id="attachment_2182" align="alignleft" width="225"] Heavenly--a stack of magazines, all waiting for me to read (I may have a bit of an addiction, but it's just that it's so cheap to subscribe through Amazon...).[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2140" align="alignleft" width="250"] And this is heaven if you are a dog who isn't allowed up on the couch.[/caption]

So here's a little gallery of some things that make it a heaven on earth for me. Now you find some things that make YOU happy.  You'll feel so much better.

Fig Fest!

[caption id="attachment_2072" align="alignleft" width="140"] This is not really Cleopatra. This is Vivian Leigh. If you've seen busts and coins that show what Cleopatra really looked like...well, she must've had a really good personality.[/caption]

Cleopatra says, "Oh, excellent!  I love long life better than I love figs!" in Antony and Cleopatra (do you see me here, quoting Shakespeare??).  Her enthusiasm (I mean, who doesn't love long life?) for figs speaks to their appeal.  Although, in this day and non-Mediterranean age and locale, there seem to be either fig lovers or fig...well,

[caption id="attachment_2088" align="alignright" width="144"] Figs in about March[/caption]

haters seems a bit strong, so fig dislikers. Most people enjoy a Newton, but the fig relationship is snuffed out with the emptying of the package.  We've always been big Fig Newton fans (big fans, not big Newtons, although big Newtons would be fine, too),

[caption id="attachment_2089" align="alignright" width="180"] Figs in June[/caption]

and we are blessed with a prolific fig tree in our yard, which was, back some many moons, a volunteer.  A stray, if you will.  The figs we grow are entirely organic (not exactly due to our commitment to the earth's well-being, rather that the tree thrives on neglect), and quite large.  Some of them verge on being the size of a pear!

Every year the tree is very generous, giving enough not only for us, but also for the birds, the deer, and the rabbits, too.  I like to use as many as possible fresh, but then I am

[caption id="attachment_2104" align="alignright" width="150"] The harvest[/caption]

still left with a lot of unused figs.  I bought a dehydrator, which is like a triple-decker cooling rack, except that it is enclosed and has a fan that blows warm air on the fruit.  I have tried this many times and, sadly, have been left with tough little carcasses of figs, rather than the sticky lusciousness you get with a store-bought dried fig.  So why keep trying it? Hope springs eternal, I guess (and yes, I do know the definition of stupidity).  But this year I looked into it online, and on eHow I found a way to oven-dry the figs.  It worked very well.

The first thing you do is to make sure all your figs are ripe, clean, and free of bird, uh, detritus. Then preheat the oven to 250 degrees.  Cut off the stems, then slice all the figs lengthwise.  Place the

[caption id="attachment_2094" align="alignleft" width="180"] Ready for the oven[/caption]

figs, cut side down, in a shallow dish with sides.  I used Pyrex 9x13s, and they worked well, but use a dish to fit the amount of figs you have, as the figs need to fit snugly in the dish.  You need a pan with sides because the figs give off a lot of juice, and you want to contain it.    Place the dish with the figs in the oven, and set the timer for one hour.  After an hour, turn the figs over, cut side up.  The juice should be starting to flow now, so kind of mop it up with the figs as you turn them over. Set the timer for another hour and repeat, this time turning the figs cut side down, mopping up the juice again. Set timer for an hour again, and turn figs

[caption id="attachment_2095" align="alignright" width="180"] After an hour[/caption]

cut side up.  If you have a lot of juice, tilt the pan and use a spoon to drizzle that juice over the figs. At the end of three hours, the figs will be dark, wrinkly, sticky, and fragrant. Reduce the heat to 200 degrees, and return the figs, still cut side up, to the oven for about 30 to 45 more minutes. That will allow the excess liquid to evaporate, the figs to dry somewhat, and the texture to become more like that of "real" dried figs.  The whole process will have taken about three-and-a-half hours. Turn the oven off and allow the figs to cool down in the oven (I left them in the oven overnight and it was fine).

[caption id="attachment_2096" align="alignleft" width="135"] Finished product[/caption]

These figs stay quite moist, so I would store them in the fridge for short-term use, or freeze them for longer storage.

This isn't exactly a cost saving recipe--the oven is on for a very long time.  But what you do get is some tasty, nutritious dried fruit that is prepared with absolutely no chemicals or preservatives.  I made fig bread, which was delicious toasted with either brie or blue cheese on it, and will be making fig bars soon.

Apparently figs were one of the first foods cultivated for agriculture, 11,000 years ago in the Middle East, according to Wikipedia.  I don't understand why they are not used today to help solve hunger problems.  While they do need some winter rain, they don't need any water for about 9 months out of the year, and they seem to self-sow.  In addition, they produce two crops every year, one in June and the other in about August--there are huge amounts of fruit! I would think some poverty-stricken areas in the world could use a few fig trees to help alleviate some of their problems.  Figs are very high in sugar, which would surely be a boon to starvation-prone areas.  They even have a little protein in them!

Well, I'm off to dry another batch, and then I will wait for the second crop to ripen.  And so it goes.

[caption id="attachment_2097" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Almost ripe fig with second crop on deck[/caption]

Relief for Your Tootsies

[caption id="attachment_2034" align="alignright" width="150"] I kid you not. They looked just like this![/caption]

First, some theme music (take note of the shoes the girl in the video is wearing!). Put it on, and then come back. When I was in college, I wore high-heeled shoes that were chic (at the time) but oh so painful.  I prided myself on not limping, even when my feet were actually bleeding.  I would walk all over campus in ridiculously uncomfortable shoes, due mainly to the fact that I looked, well, fabulous (humor me--it was the '80s).  Ahh youth.  Ahh vanity--all, sadly, missing from my life these days.  Fabulous?  Umm...no.  Youth?  Nuh-uh.  Vanity?  Struggling to keep her head above water, but rapidly losing out to comfort.

Every now and then, however, events come to pass where I have to wear shoes that are less than comfy.  Or even just on a day-to-day basis, I have a couple of pairs of flats that, while not terribly uncomfortable on the whole, rub my feet a bit, making me very glad to take them off ASAP.  So anyway, a recent outing led me

[caption id="attachment_2035" align="alignleft" width="158"] Similar to this, but mine are black.[/caption]

to wear a pair of rather high, platform wedge espadrilles.  I knew I'd be on my feet for a long time, so I thought I'd look into some pain prevention.  Band-aids are no good here--maybe it's just me, but they slip off very quickly when I try to use them inside shoes.  Instead of Band-aids I use waterproof first-aid tape (the white stuff), which works pretty well.  But these platforms were peep-toe, and slingback as well.  So no, white tape would not work.

Then one day I was in Target and thought I'd take a gander at the shoe accoutrements, to see if there was anything that would be helpful.  Lo and behold, there was!  Well, at the time I didn't know it was helpful, but I soon found out.  It's this stuff called Fab Feet Blisstick.  It is invisible blister protection.  It's just beeswax and hydrogenated vegetable oil (wait--isn't that Crisco??) and a little fragrance.  The container is like a tiny stick of deodorant.  All you do is apply it to your foot anywhere you think there may be rubbing that would end in a blister.  Before my event, I tried it with flats.  It was fantastic!  I wore them all day, for the first time ever, with no pain! So when I had to wear my platforms, I whipped the Blisstick out again, and truly, it was amazing! I wore those darn shoes for about nine hours, with no blisters.  The Blisstick makes a slippery (but not messy) coating on your skin that prevents rubbing.  And I was worried about it staining the leather, but it didn't.  So what a find, just in time for sandal season!  Highly recommended!

Grown-up Fun

Well, I just don't know what to tell you.  I thought I had an addiction that was mine alone.  But have you been in the Vacaville Costco on a Thursday or a Friday lately?  Everybody (no, really--everybody) has a bottle (or two or three) of Kirkland Premium Golden Margarita in their cart.  It's ready-to-drink, and it is sooo good.  Addictive, in fact.  It's tart, not too sweet (I don't care for sweet cocktails), and very, very tasty.  I would not advise stepping on the bathroom scale after a day spent by the pool, quaffing this little number.  Heaven only knows what the calorie count is. Far better, frankly, not to know.  My vices are so few, and I don't want to ruin it.  Apologies for the photo of the partially used bottle, but we seem unable to keep a new bottle unused for very long at all.  It's about the same alcohol level as wine (12.7%), but somehow it's just so much more festive!  Truly, it can't be beat as a by- or in-the-pool drink.  (Of course you know that a blow-up pool is just as good as an in-ground pool for our purposes here--the cool, blue water is the object.)  $9.99 for that great big bottle?  Not much money, and certainly well spent.  My advice:  have plenty of ice on hand, and get dinner ready BEFORE you head out to the pool with your little cocktail(s).

And Now for Something Completely Different

(you have to say that in your best Monty Python voice--go ahead--click on "Monty Python"! You can hear it!  Okay, now come back.)

Not too long ago I talked about some of my favorite book genres, and one of those books in the "Women in the Middle East" genre was Persepolis, which is a graphic novel.  I really loved that book, which surprised me.  I've never been one for comic books. Well, that's not entirely true--I used to love "Archie" comics, what with all the high drama that minx Veronica stirred up.   But that's where my interest stayed--it never segued into manga or anything crazy like that.  So liking Persepolis was unexpected.

Writing the Literary Obsessions post got me wondering if there were other graphic novels I might like.  I started poking around on Amazon and found a couple I thought I'd like, and then some I just wanted to read out of curiosity.

The graphic novel I read out of curiosity was called Black Hole by Charles Burns. It was very good, well drawn and well written.  But weird.  Very, very weird.  I felt like I'd read something I shouldn't have.  It's the story of teenagers who care only about getting laid, getting high, getting drunk, and getting laid. Oh--and getting laid.  It's basically a cautionary tale (or tail--ha ha!-- if you read it you'll get the joke) about a bunch of teenagers who don't care about a plague that seems to be causing them terrible, disfiguring wounds, growths, etc., as long as they get to keep having sex.  So of course you see the AIDS parallel here.  I found it very dark, quite depressing, and it made me think that I was neither young enough nor edgy enough to read graphic novels.

But I wasn't quite ready to give up on graphic novels just yet.  I found Maus I:  My Father Bleeds History, and Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began, by Art Spiegelman. Once again, a genre of books I am fascinated with led to my discovery of these two graphic novels.  Holocaust memoirs are unsettling and horrifying and at the same time utterly compelling.  Maus tells the true story of Art Spiegelman's father, a Holocaust survivor.  The Jews are portrayed as mice, and the Germans as cats.  The Poles are pigs, the Americans are dogs, and a child of mixed heritage (i.e. German and Jew) is shown as a mouse, but with cat stripes. When the Jews (mice) are trying to pass as gentile Poles, they wear pig masks. It sounds odd, I know.  The animal portrayals make it easy to decipher who is who (a German civilian or a Polish civilian?), and don't detract from the story in any way. I couldn't put it down.  I read both books in two days.

It's no secret that another of my favorite genres is the whole British thing.  And yes, there are graphic novels to fill the bill of..well, the whole British thing.  Like a message from above, I came across Posy Simmonds.  How could someone named Posy disappoint me in any literary fashion?  Well, she didn't disappoint, and I love her work.  How did I find her?  Well, it's kind of a long story (you knew it would be).  I was watching TV, home alone one day, which NEVER happens, and when it does I never watch TV, except for this time, and I came upon a movie called Tamara Drewe (and by the way, one of the main characters is played

[caption id="attachment_1948" align="alignleft" width="203"] "Friday Night Dinner" cast[/caption]

by Tamsin Greig, who played the mother on the very, very funny British TV series "Friday Night Dinners").  I really liked it, and noticed at the end it was based on a book.  When I went looking for the author (Posy Simmonds) at the library, they didn't have anything except Gemma Bovery, so I got that one instead. Obviously you know this is going to be a takeoff of Madame Bovary, and it is.  Gemma (like Emma, the other Bovary) is unfaithful and feckless, and meets an end that is retribution for her misbehavior. But it's so good!   It's like a comic book soap opera.  I finally got Tamara Drewe, and I loved it too!  Apparently it is loosely based on Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, which I have never read.  But it tells the story of a woman who returns to her childhood haunts, vastly transformed, and a couple (the wife is Tamsin Greig) who run a writers' retreat.  The husband is famous in his own right, and the wife is sacrificing and long-suffering, and of course drama ensues.  I just love these books!  The writing is so great, and then you throw in the drawing as well?  Well, I am in awe of Ms. Simmonds. I am looking forward to reading more of her work.

Not to be shallow, but something I love about graphic novels is how quickly you can finish them.  I read Gemma Bovery in a couple of hours!  It's not that I'm trying to get it over with, but sometimes it's nice to be able, in one afternoon, to check a book off your list that you've been wanting to read.  As an old grownup lady, I never thought I'd be a fan of the genre, but thanks to these books, particularly the works of Art Spiegelman and Posy Simmonds, I truly am.  They are completely different, and I hope you'll give them a try.

Take Four as Needed for Anxiety...

Put this music on and come back.  No really, just click on where it says "this music"  and it will open in a new window.  I just learned how to do this and I am RAWTHER excited.  You know I will be attaching music to everything now, don't you.  The music will open in a new window, and you can listen to it when you toggle back to this window.  Okay, so now you hopefully have some very beautiful, very soothing music playing in the background. Isn't that nice?  That's Bent, with their song "Swollen."  It's a pretty old song, but it's one of the most gorgeous pieces of music I know.  Okay, back to more ways of alleviating anxiety (None of which include chocolate, because though I have tried, really I have, to use chocolate as a tranquilizer, I've found it only aggravates things, since now I have calories and fatness to worry about.  And maybe breaking out.), because on the whole I have a LOT of anxiety.

1.  The music is, first and foremost, my best way of dealing with stress and anxiety. When you're done with "Swollen," close out and try this one.  It's Angela McCluskey singing with Telepopmusik, called "Don't Look Back."  This isn't music to cheer you up--that's a whole different criteria.  This is stuff to calm you, to soothe your savage breast.  Well, if not savage, certainly tense. Okay, now play this one!  It's Royksopp, "In Space."  Alright, now last of all throw in some Daft Punk, "Nightvision."  None of this is new music--the Daft Punk alone is 10 years old!  But these are beautiful, peaceful, and calming pieces of music.  They work!

2.  Another interesting little thing I found is called Bach Rescue Remedy. They are stress relieving pastilles, and they are sort of like gummies.  They have a very mild citrus flavor, and you chew/suck two or three at a time.  They are homeopathic, made of flowers ( in Switzerland!), and apparently have no better efficacy than a placebo.  Well, I don't know what to tell you, because I find they work really well--bring on the placebos! I generally chew a few when I feel wound tight as a spring.  And then, after about 20 or 30 minutes, I suddenly notice that I don't feel wound quite so tightly.

3.  Much as I hate to admit it, going for a walk is hugely helpful (I prefer to doctor myself from the comfort of my own home).  Taking the dog tires us both out, and we both sleep better. Although I don't think the dog has any anxiety.  She just likes to go for walks.

4.  Finally, if worse comes to worst, sit outside, look at the full moon (which always aggravates my anxiety issues--the moon, not the sitting), and open a bottle of wine. And maybe put on some music (see above).