The summer heat, not content to wait until it is actually summer, descended like a moist breath over the area today. I took Willow outside and let her play in the dirt for awhile, much to her delight. The Dickens joined us as well. Jen came out and pulled the dead vine out of the beautifully blooming tree in the backyard. It used to be a live vine, and I remember spending a lot of time stopping Nate from tearing at it last summer. So of course it was the next door neighbors, who for reasons known only to themselves, hacked off the vine at its base on their side of the fence, leaving us with a tree full of dead vine. Oh well, as long as they leave our surviving trees alone.

I got home late tonight, and have to get up earlier than usual in a few hours, so I'm going to bed now and you can't stop me.

cds I listened to while hurrying home to go to bed: Townes Van Zandt "Texas Troubadour" discs 3 & 4, Jolie Holland "Catalpa", and Paul Chain "Relative Tapes on CD" discs 1 & 2