Dear Horoscope Person:

You love entertaining at home almost more than anything else. You're a natural caregiver, and when you've got everyone you love under one roof, eating whatever you've whipped up (with plenty of TLC), it's as close to heaven as it gets on this world. Now is the time to treat yourself and your people to just such an event. Gather everyone together for an impromptu shindig at your place.

Will you please stop with all that sappy crap about how Cancerians are all homebody and caregivers and ooh, we get all warm and happy just thinking about busting our asses in the kitchen cooking for a crowd and fussing over and waiting on them? Gaaah. This Cancerian has never fit that stereotype, and I can't think of any who do.

Maybe I'm just cranky because I had a lousy night's sleep last night. I woke up around 1:30 because the room was stifling. The air conditioning had hit that point of parity with the outside air where it quits cycling on as often, and the air gets still and humid. I drank about a quart of water and turned on the ceiling fan, and let the dogs out to pee (since we were up anyway). Then we all tried to go back to sleep. Murphy succeeded (do you think it's a guy thing?) but Sophie and I both tossed and turned and flounced and sighed until around 3:30. Sophie can flounce and sigh with the best of them - she's the most comical little dog ever.

Consequently, we all dragged ourselves out of bed after 6:30, which is already too late for the dog walk-followed-by-bike-ride which has been my routine this week, because if I don't get a really early start the heat is unbearable.

My bike groove is definitely back, so much so that I am ready to venture off my quiet residential streets onto a few somewhat less quiet (but still residential - I am not heading out onto any six-lane highways) streets, so I've invested in a bike helmet and a mirror.

I know, I know, I should have been wearing a helmet all along, but honestly, I'm pedaling around a neighborhood that consists of one long main circular road and a number of cul-de-sacs; it's posted at 25 mph and has no through traffic to speak of, so it's very, very quiet. I spent decades riding before "regular people" were expected to wear helmets and it's still a weird concept to me. Helmets were strictly for the Lance Armstrong wannabes in the lycra shorts who ride very fast and bent over the handlebars like human cannonballs. I am not that person and never wanted to be. For me, adding a mirror is the far more sensible safety precaution, because I'd like to see whether something is about to run me over from behind, but okay, I'll be a responsible adult and wear a helmet too.

Anyway, I shopped locally for both when I first got the bike and gave up. They were either way too expensive or just...inappropriate for my cute girly pink comfort bike. I found exactly what I wanted on eBay - a grownup-looking plain white helmet with a few pink accents, and a good quality mirror that attaches to the handlebars. All hail eBay. Best of all, I sold some yarn via Ravelry and had more than enough money sitting in my Paypal account to cover both items, so I think of them as sort of free, which makes me even happier.

I've scheduled the house repairs and paint for the second half of August, and made my plans for Asheville, and now I have a few days in which I can do other important things. There are half-finished knitting projects, and my camera is feeling neglected.