I just heard a near-fight between kitties. Cute little kitties with sharp teeth and claws. I know about the claws. This evening the friendly, front-yard cat turned up after not being around for a few days, and she was so happy to see me that she decided to try climbing me as though I were a tree. When I reached down to discourage her from digging deeper into my leg, one of her claws raked my thumb...

If the striped kitty was here tonight I missed seeing her. A second bowl of food I left out was eaten, but I think it was eaten by the gray cat, who is napping in my back yard again. No wonder he's sleepy, if he just downed two bowls of food. No time for a real entry tonight, as I've been diddling about with the latest uploads to the Library of Congress photostream at Flickr. But while I'm here...

I caught a glimpse of the waxing crescent moon this evening, low in the southwest and screened by a stand of pines. This will be the last moon of summer. Since daytime temperatures have returned to near triple digits, the sliver of moon is especially welcome. Nights are cool enough to make the house comfortable after an hour or so. In the meantime, I can watch the moon vanish behind the tree trunks...

Another golden poppy bloomed today. It must have been getting water from a nearby flower bed. This is definitely not the time of year one expects poppies to bloom. I wonder if I could get more of them to bloom if I watered the whole patch frequently? It would be extravagant. It wouldn't be ostentatious, though, since the poppy patch is in the back yard and nobody sees it but us. If the nights turn...

Somebody in the neighborhood is doing some late cooking again tonight, but it smells much better than whatever was cooking the other night. It's very garlicky, and is making me nostalgic for my old neighborhood in Rosemead, where the scent of garlic is heavy in the air every evening. If I had a wok I'd stir-fry something. Aside from there being nothing garlicky for me to eat, this is another pleasant...

There's a nice, cool wind blowing, and lots of dry leaves skittering down the street. It would probably smell good, too, if somebody upwind were not cooking something stinky (I'm picturing tuna casserole) and another person doing laundry with what smells like one of those smelly fabric softeners. The smells will go away in a while, and it will be nice out again. Even the cicadas are fewer, and I hear...

August's final day has been its best. No more stagnant, torrid air, but fresh breezes and balmy sunlight and the whir of hovering hummingbirds. Two squirrels frolicked, scrabbling on the bark of a pine. A plane droned overhead, on its way to no fire. Crows cawed as they glided, glossy black against vivid blue sky, and the acorn woodpeckers chuckled. It's taken so long for summer to find perfection...

A couple of dogs were barking like crazy some distance east of here. I wonder if they spotted one of those displaced bears who've been seen a few times since the fires? While I enjoy visits from cats, and I like bears just fine when they stay in the forest, I'd be most displeased to have bears visit my yard. For one thing, they leave loads of droppings! For another, bears bite! Not to mention that...

Today was supposed to be cooler than yesterday, but it didn't feel cooler. Maybe it was the humidity. About four o'clock, the sky clouded up and I feared we might be in for a lightning storm, but nothing came of it. Still, at sunset the purple and gray clouds to the west made the sky look beaten and bruised. The heat has certainly made me feel beaten and bruised, and I've gotten crankier each day...

The temperature outside right now would have been very nice for a late summer afternoon. As it is, there's a terrible disconnect between the balminess and the absence of sunlight. It's like the sun has gone out! OMG the sun's gone out and we're all going to die! But actually, the sun's not gone out, and that's why we're all going to die! Broiled like lobsters! The heat hasn't diminished the appetites...