July 25
It is way too hot here! Hotter even than North Carolina, though I didn't know that was possible! It feels a bit like melting, or camping out in the heart of a volcano. And there's not really much we can do about it, since there are not many shade trees in this park. We did try putting foil over the windows to keep the sun's heat out, and though it has cooled it off somewhat, it feels a little like we're inside one of those old 80's TV dinners – the type that always made the food in them taste like aluminum.
In an effort to take at least some advantage of the unending sun (and to fight off some boredom), the older boys tried to make a "hot box" for cooking in. They lined a cardboard box with foil and put plastic wrap on the top, and duct-taped it all up (sometimes it feels that duct tape is all that's holding this trailer together anymore!). For some reason, the hot box didn't get quite hot enough to cook in, but they had fun trying!
Well, and the water heater still doesn't work; but one advantage of the blistering sun is that it at least makes the water in the hose hot. So we let that into the kitchen sink so we can wash the dishes properly. It doesn't do us much good for taking showers in the trailer at night, but at least last night the cool shower was refreshing after a long, hot day!
I think I'll be needing another cool one tonight, as well. Some time around noon today, after spending a good chunk of the morning outside, I found a rock that looks just like a potato. I proceeded to loudly and proudly announced to the family that it is my rock – my pet rock that I had immediately and irrevocably named "Rocky".
After a while of watching me giggle at it, Thorin suggested that the heat was getting to me, and urged me to get out of the sun. He had me go into our room in the trailer, then he gave me a nice glass of lemonade and cranked up the air conditioner and turned the fan towards me. And I really do think that the sun was starting to get to me, because when I cooled off, I began to feel a bit silly about the whole rock thing.
Still, to humor me, Thorin brought "Rocky" inside and gave him a place of honor next to the bananas in the fruit basket.
I'm keeping it. It's a nice rock.
NOTE: Just a quick reminder that a good many of the things that happen in this story actually happened to us in real life, so... yeah. I still have Rocky.