Summer's comin'

We are having a preview of summer here right now.  The last 4 days temps have been up into the 90's.  Now, 92 isn't too bad, but yesterday and today and tomorrow they will be in the high 90's.  Our neighbors on one side are already running their air conditioner.  We aren't.  Honestly, I don't like to even turn it on until temps hit the dreaded triple digits, and that won't be happening this week. By Thursday, however, our temps start going down back into the 70's.  Phew!  If we run our air conditioner during "non-peak" times (like now), Southern California Edison REALLY packs you a punch!  I know some folks like to keep their houses at 78 degrees, but we have two large shade trees out front which shade the living room, and we just turn on a fan.

Al, over at the Bayfield Bunch, was talking about how he is getting tired of snow days and staying inside.  We basically have that same situation, only here it is summer days.  From about June 15 - the end of September, it's too dang hot to go anywhere or do anything, especially mid-day.  That's when the animals take an afternoon nap, and so do we.  It's just too hot to be moving around.  I recall a few years when we didn't have to turn on the a/c until July 4, but I don't see that happening this year.  We're thinking we are probably going to have to replace our whole unit (compressor and fan inside) this summer anyway.  The inside unit is 17 years old and our compressor is 12, and in this desert heat, they are WAY OVERDUE for replacement.We DID have another compressor which wore out just shy of its 5 year warranty, so the company DID come out and replace it years ago, but 12 hot summers is a LOT of abuse for any air conditioner.

OY VEI!

The front yard is pretty much cleaned up now, the porch is cleaned off, and the dumpster will be hauled away tomorrow.  We got our insurance check, so we'll have the crew back to trim out other eucalyptus out front and then start on the cottonwood out back.  It has a lot of dead branches which need to be thinned out.  We won't take it completely down, however, and neither will we completely take down our remaining eucalyptus.

Wish us luck.  Both are HUGE trees.  Our crew was actually next door yesterday afternoon removing a pine tree from their front yard.