The sticky weather continues to torment us. I noticed today that the air has once again taken on a brownish tinge along the horizon, like a monstrous dirty diaper. Maybe it was this dirtiness that kept people away from the museum today. I found myself nearly alone at my table, where I would have been showing people how to make rain guages had anybody been interested.

This morning, before the heat struck, I took my mother to the hospital for a hernia operation, and sat there with her as one of the hospital bureaucratic types shuffled papers around and asked for the same information several times.
After work, I picked her up and drove her home. Just like that. It was her first operation too. I have yet to have one myself, and am not looking forward to the day. The idea of being "put under" while people I don't know cut me open just doesn't appeal to me.

I'm currently listening to Ilgi "Speleju Dancoju" (I Played and Danced). It's a musical based on a play by Latvian poet Janis Rainis (1865-1929), and the music definitely covers a lot of ground, with scores of singers singing the character parts, backed by Ilgi's blend of Latvian folk and rock. Willow was in here earlier dancing to it. I wonder what kind of music she'll like when she's a teenager. Most likely something that all of the grownups hate, but you never can tell. Maybe she'll be the exception to that particular rule.

Here's another picture of a snake. This one I caught up near Pinecrest Lake in the Sierra Nevada range. It's a Mountain Kingsnake. Red on black. Friend of Jack. Whoever Jack is.