Follow a Negative with a Positive?

I was going to start this post out with the word Ugh, but thought better.

Who wants to read anything that starts out negative?

So!  I gave you two sentences, and now here comes the negative.

This week?  Ugh.  Summer.  Sheesh.  I hate sweat, I hate that trickle wherever it starts and wherever it is I can swoop in get it to stop.

I have become neurotic about Paul's kitten Julia (well, she's now about a year old), climbing into one of our cars and dying a pathetic, 120+* death.  So I am constantly on the lookout for her.  She, on the other hand, is prowling for anything that moves, and this is sort of a good thing.  Moles, you know.  The barn swallows have her number, and I think she has acquiesced on that note.

Neither Julia nor Sister Monica Joan (my pound cat) have much interest in entering our abode in this heat wave.  They have cat food and water, and they stare at me, unmoving, as I hold the door open for them, asking, "Do you want to go inside?"  Allthewhile, the AC is heading OUTSIDE.   Our dog, B., on the other hand, lies in wait for those six words.  She knows them!  And she knows where she is allowed in the house.  She is so gigantic (85+ lbs),  I had to make a few perimeters, lest I trip over a dog and end up in the emergency room.

The bugs are ugly this summer.  UGLY!  The gnats are on high alert.  Too, I hate the fact that, even though my child-bearing years are past, I am still arising at dawn and applying mosquito repellent even as I sip my morning coffee out of my dainty teacup, (which will follow me out the door as I tend to things outdoorsy).  And the tick population?!  Don't start the conversation.

I have been earnest in getting out and doing things during this, my least favorite time of the year.  If I do not hop on a bike, I have been walk/running a 5K before the sun fully rises and before those insidious flies (bot flies?!) attempt to cling onto my sweaty (ICK!!!) face.  I try to ride my bike in the way early mornings, and I diligently swing by the university's pool (the Natatorium.  Like our Viaduct: Rural Kansas likes Latin proper nouns, apparently.)  right after lunch.

I wear a hat that says "Go Outdoors."

I do.

I am trying.

TRYING.

Trying to cope with summer.

Ugh.

Next week:

Estes park and Breckenridge, Colorado.

Saints be praised.