I'm broke, exhausted and slightly sunburned, but the pond is running again. If you are looking for knitting content, click away now. There will be knitting content tomorrow, because as Gawd is Mah Witnuss!! tomorrow I'm going to church and coffee, and then my ass is parking on the couch and I am watching movies and knitting. Today was more than productive enough.

I was rudely awakened this morning at 3:30 - yes, THREE-FREAKING-THIRTY! - when the neighbor's latest cat joined the ranks of all her other cats and came over to my house and asked to come in. (I think they figure out that she's weird and would prefer to live with me, but I've bagged my kitty limit and must refuse their polite, if nocturnal, requests.) Murphy is not very gracious about it, he saw a strange little cat on the front walk and launched a very noisy burst of Protecting the Homestead - "Go Home! My Mommy is trying to sleep!" He would not take a screamed "Shut the Fuck UP!" for an answer, and I had to get up, turn on the front light and yell at the small offending cat, who took himself home. I wanted to kill Murphy for being such a noisy little watchdog about a 2 lb. kitten, but didn't. I wanted to go back to sleep, but didn't. After an hour of trying, I got up and started laundry and drank coffee.

When it got light enough I took Murphy for a walk around the lake. We are experiencing that subtle weather change that only Floridians can notice - visitors still perceive it as Really Freaking Hot, which it is, but it's RFH in a different way - slightly lower humidity, a breeze that is actually refreshing rather than an exhaust fan from Hell's dry cleaner. (Oh please, you know there are dry cleaners, where else would all those assholes who operate those $1.50 Dry Cleaning businesses go?)

We did a lap, and Murphy was so happy to walk around the lake again after weeks of no lake walkies due to endless rain and storms, he kept up a great pace. The funniest sight of the walk was ducks paddling around eating bugs - in people's backyards. The standing water is deep enough for ducks to swim in. It's also breeding mosquitoes like nobody's business, even the ducks can't keep up. The lake, which was very low in the spring, is now very, very high, there's almost no dry land between the lake and the sidewalk, and then on the opposite side of the sidewalk is more standing water. It doesn't smell too great in places, either.

So after a lap Murphy got tired and I took him home, but I still felt like walking and enjoying that low humidity, and went back out and did another lap. Two miles of walking, the most in many weeks, and it felt soooo good.

Energized by the walking, I paid bills, did laundry, ran errands, bought new pond pump and filter, installed same, tried to fix fence, swore, found out I need to bridge the gap between fence posts with a board I did not have on hand, did more laundry, and am now ready to freaking collapse. All of this, except the laundry and bill paying, was done in 90 degree heat and blazing sun. I am so glad I do not work outdoors for a living.

The pond is running again, the water is a lovely emerald green, almost a solid, actually, but after generous applications of algae-fixing stuff, I hope it will clear up in a day or two. The fish are alive, I caught glimpses of them in the murk while I was putting in the new equipment. It's "put in" in the sense that it is in the water and working, in a temporary way - I do want a more permanent power arrangement, but right now a cord running to the external outlet on the patio will be just fine.

I think I am too tired to knit tonight. I could crochet the All Seasons Shawl, that's rhythmic and requires no counting, and by now I'm at that stage where I can subconsciously sense a mistake as I make it, even if my eyes are glued to a movie. Yeah, that's the way to go tonight. Tomorrow I will talk about knitting. I am thinking about it, just not doing it much.