good gracious

Yes, sir. It is definitely hot. Williamsburg has been hit with a heat wave (what?! in August?! nooo!). Both today and yesterday, there were heat advisories. 95+ degrees, heat index of 110-115. Woooooeeee!
So. Usually I would not venture out on any long, extended walks in the sun & humid, stifling air, but car troubles arise at the most conveinient times, don't they? Last night, Megan and I went to New Town. Since we left at 4, the sun was still out and humidity and heat going full force (as well as the heat advisory), so we drove over there to save us a few minutes in the heat. We park the car, run in and see Hot Rod. It was funny, very random, involved a moped (woo!) and, most important, was air conditioned to the point of freezing. I think it was actually the first time I was in the a/c in the movies and didn't feel like it was too cold. After we got out of the movie, it was still incredibly humid, but not as hot. We got some dinner, walked around, went into a few stores, tra la la. I actually ended up finding an amazing lesson plan/record book all in one! AND it has pockets AND reference charts that I want AND a whole parent contact log. Simply amazing. Thank you, B&N. I also found this awesome little book put out by SparkNotes that has all these discussion topics and writing prompts. They had a ton of them, involving most subjects. I picked up the "Good Books" one, because it involves 50% of the novels/plays we read in class as well as novels/plays for other grade levels. I think every book but one was on the required reading list for 9-12th English. Amazing! I love them! Originally I loved SparkNotes because they actually did a good job on their website, then the whole "No Fear Shakespeare" thing, now this! Wow.
Okay, anyway, back to the car. I start the car up, put it in reverse and there is this loud beep. Then I notice a little icon I've never seen before flashing. As we're driving, Megan looks it up in the Owner's Manual. It is the coolant/antifreeze/thermostat icon. Sweet. She reads from the manual and it's all: "This means your coolant/antifreeze is either too hot or too cold. Pull over and turn off engine. Sit for a while. Then try and start it up again." Yeah, okay, no. We're already halfway home. But then I notice the temperature gauge is moving up there pretty quick. I start to flip out and hightail it into the parking lot. I call David and ask him if he thinks I should walk up to Target or Food Lion to buy some coolant. Bo thinks it's the thermostat. Around 8:30, I try the car again. No beeping and flashing, but the temp rises really quickly again. An hour later, I open the hood and check the coolant. Yep. That's it. The coolant is almost 2" below the min. line. Grrrrrrrreat. At least it wasn't a part gone bad, but still. So, this morning, I got to take a nice, long, 20-25 minute walk to Target. I have never sweat so much in my life. Thank god I put on sunscreen. My face looked sunburned already, because I was so hot. Now, my car is fine and I can stop kicking myself for not getting an oil change yesterday like I said I was going to.
Also, Jackie has a tapeworm. Or tapeworms? I don't know. We found them on her and near where she sleeps (dead, shriveled, don't worry. They die very quickly outside the body because it's not the actually worm, but parts of it, or some crazy stuff like that. Google it. It's crazy) and near where she sits. The reason why we haven't noticed before is because this is the only type of worm that cats get that (thank god) doesn't give them the runs, weight loss, death, etc. Gooood. It's also the only one that made sense for them to have: they usually get it because they ingested a flea (which, if you know our cats, they've had twice in the past 2 years. ugggh) that has a tapeworm or tapeworm eggs. Yummy. She now has an appointment with the vet down the street tomorrow to get her some meds and get it out of her.

Last night was full of bad news, but hey-- it gave me quite a purpose-filled day, made me enjoy the heat (hah) & sweat out everything, and now everything is back to normal, or going to be starting tomorrow. Whew!