Don't Breathe a Sigh of Relief Yet, Greendale

This is some heat wave, huh? You know it's bad when you hear that in the neighboring 'Big City,' thieves are now stealing window air conditioning units to sell on the street (that would be Milwaukee, not Greenfield, in case you're wondering - fortunately the problem isn't THAT close to our little Utopia).

No, here in the village, those folks without A/C find more neighborly ways of dealing with the hot weather. For example, our house has become THE place to be over the last few days, especially for those friends of our kids who don't have central air.

That's fine by me, although it is definitely making me reconsider why we didn't add that inground pool when we did our backyard remodel last summer? The pool we have just isn't cutting it anymore. Picture a dozen or so teenagers trying to squeeze into a 10x10 inflatable pool... 'funny' perhaps (in a how-many-people-can-you-fit-into-a-VW-Beetle '70's sort of way), but definitely not 'fun'.  

It sure was nice to get a little breather last night from the heat, hey? What a relief to be able to sleep with the windows open again and listen to the thunder and the rain falling... you could almost hear the 'green' coming back to Greendale.     

If you listened a little closer, though, you could also hear the collective groan of husbands all over the village realizing that if we got enough rain, it would mean having to mow the lawn again. Entreprenurial teenagers on the other hand were silently cheering... brown grass does not make for very good lawn-cutting business.  

Yeah, I'll admit we pay our two boys for cutting the grass. They also have grandarents who are willing to throw a little cash their way for said services. Over the years, we've tried different methods for giving our kids an allowance: there was the 'giving them a set amount no matter how many chores we asked them to do' method. There was the 'do the chores because you live here and shouldn't expect to get paid at all' method (which we still employ for many things). Then there's the 'giving them an amount based on each chore they did'... which was just too hard to keep track of. The whole 'chore chart' thing might seem good in theory, but in reality? Well, let's just say for us, no.

Now we seem, for the most part, to have settled on just giving them money when they need it, or at least can convince us that they need it. Which is usually whenever we get sick of listening to them try to convince us how badly they need it. Or whenever they happen to mow the lawn. 

The break in the heat this week seemed timely for another reason: it was the end of baseball season for many local boys and girls, as and Softball Leagues finished up their playoffs this week. Sure, the Brewers are still playing, but for me at least, when my own kid's season is done, it's a sure sign the end of summer is not far behind.

Let me take a moment to congratulate all the players on a terrific season and to thank all the Twi-Nite coaches who volunteer many hours to work with our kids, teaching them not only the game, but good sportsmanship and teamwork. A special shout-out to my son's coaches -Tom Wood and Keith Ringelberg: Thanks for all your patience and dedication (and yes, fellas, I will FINALLY stop with the constant emails about game schedules and the like). 

Of course, the end of summer means the start of fall. I can handle that... it's what comes next that isn't so hot (if you catch my drift). So all of you media folks and friends on Facebook who keep posting photos of last February's monster snow storm - stop! I have a better way to get you thinking cool thoughts... it's called a second-hand inflatable 10x10 pool for sale - cheap!

After all, I hear the heat wave is back on and will be at least into the start of next week.