Heat index 112º.  Soon it will be India here.  Good thing I practiced broiling there.  Extreme heat advisory means I get to hunker down and chill, i.e. get things done at home.  This is luxury.

While waiting for my monthly minimal Instacart delivery, I repotted everything from the hydroponics cube, then disassembled it and gave it a much-needed cleaning.  Eventually the plants find their way into the Avdi’s gardens or into my mouth.

Filed documents.  Answered mail.  Wrote this.  Didn’t broil to death.  A productive day.

Heat advisory–heat index at 109° as I write.  Still, I walked to Avdi’s to water the garden so it wouldn’t die.  Avdi vacuumed the pool.  It was hot enough out to boil to death, but we lived.  Then he drove me home.  The luxury.

This huge mushroom was on the way to A’s.  Look at my corn row, over my head!  And there’s finally actual broccoli heads on the plants.  This heat doesn’t seem to faze the plant kingdom, just me.

I sweated it out in the garden planting, weeding, etc, while A&J worked in the office.  The humidity in STL is abominable, but you adapt–and shower.

Later, Avdi and I tried out a Biryani restaurant nearby.  The décor sucked (typical) but the N. Indian/Pakistani food was excellent, and we had the place mostly to ourselves.  They even had authentic Indian-style chai.

Then we checked out Laumeier Sculpture Park, a combination of unique industrial and other sculpture and a park with trails.  Here is the iconic eyeball.  I feel seen.

Avdi is under pressure to use his abbreviated summer efficiently, while still taking time to do some of the things he never gets to do.  After he dropped me off, he went out to a dance club.  The day before, he got to sit and catch up on his streaming series.  I’m happy to see him getting some R&R with grownups.  It’s just as essential to mental and physical wellbeing as sleep.  People with kids, especially neurodivergent ones, know the toll that deprivation takes.

No, I’m not tripping.  If my readership of 1.5 recalls, there were these large mushrooms (at the school on the way to A’s).  Yesterday they had opened up to these umbrellas!

Also, while gardening I discovered this starfish!  Actually, two types of okra which are finally maturing.  Good thing Avdi likes okra!  Without the kids here, we can fix whatever we want.

The water has receded, but the garden is a total weed jungle!  It was hot and humid, but since my work inside was done, I tried to restore some order outside.  I’m recycling cardboard boxes by laying them down between rows on top of the stubborn weeds.  I did some more weeding and found some more veggies struggling to make it.  The “afterthought” tomato row is really thriving.  I cleaned up the herb garden and trimmed back some of the giant flowering plants.

Avdi and Jess were working in the office, kid-free, so I tried to be as quiet and unkidlike as possible!  Later, Avdi and I went to the hardware store–I know , exciting, but any outing not involving working around kids is refreshing.

Today will be a different kind of erev, not featuring the usual preps.  We may just go out for dinner!  The freedom!

Avdi got home, and behold–the house was clean!  The “lake” that was the yard was still flooded, but it was receding.

Best of all, Avdi and I got to go out to Soulard, a gay STL neighborhood where the country’s second largest Mardis Gras is held each year, and checked out pubs.  The first was Venice Café, where I couldn’t stop taking photos!  That’s the only way to describe the place, it was such a kaleidoscope of color and eccentricity.  We had drinks and checked out the crazy array of sensory sights.  I was in hippie heaven.

Then we went to McGurk’s Irish Pub, where I had their own excellent stout, and we listened to a couple of musicians playing traditional Irish music, which I loved.  The evening was almost like a mini-vacation for me, getting to do stuff with Avdi.

While everyone’s vacationing at a Great Lake, I’ve been holding down the moat.  Note the raindrops on the pool.

Yesterday, Avdi’s official birthday, I tried something different with the challot–I sweetened them and filled them with a rich cinnamon sugary raisin filling, then rolled them up, brushed on a sweetened eggwash and seeds, and voilà!  Cake!  I made three kinds of fish, a chana dal coconut curry with rice, sliced homegrown cucumber, fresh fruit salad, and etc.  Of course Avdi got the requisite homemade bookmarks, along with other special gifts.  Since E’s pie was the birthday pie (with candles), we just had Shabbat candles and lots of leftover desserts from the party.  (There are also lots of leftover beers to choose from!)  I’m hoping despite Avdi’s exhaustion, we made his birthday memorable.  Now he and the kids are preparing for their trip to Chicago.

Not to make light of the flooding, but I find it hilarious that the pool was in a lake, and E was floating along on a pool floaty and splashing through the lake.  (It wasn’t sewage this time, as the sewage canal somehow didn’t overflow.)  But there were waterbugs in the lake–now how did they get there?

Anyway, Birthday Beer and Boating (with Badminton out front) went splashingly!  I walked over and set up, with some help.  I tried to make it extra festive.  I was exhausted by the time people showed up, so I adjourned to the pool with beer.  By then Avdi had pumped out much of the lake, so one could squish over to the pool.  E baked a gorgeous (and I assume delicious) birthday pie (“we really do like pie”) and luscious brownies.  I baked oatmeal cookies.  Lots of people brought lots of good food.  Badminton did occur after all, out front, as mentioned.  Avdi eventually got to relax with beer!

The best part of our little mini-community is how it has turned into a safe place for friends and kids’ friends all across the queer spectrum or neurodiverse spectrum to hang out and feel at home.  They always have intelligent conversations around the patio table, or just have fun.  The main thing is trust and support are being built.  Gradually more friends join us.  Diversity with common ground is strong medicine!  I love to be a part of it.

Notice I didn’t mention 4th of July once.  And I did not fall on my face one single time!  A success!

Well, at least it didn’t rain on our Parade!  Now it’s t-storming and threatening to rain on Avdi’s Birthday B&B scheduled for tomorrow the 4th of July (and their parade).  Great timing, MO!  It’s hard to play badminton in a flooded swamp.  We may or may not be able to do a rain date on Friday.  We may have to just rein it in…side (SWIDT), not ideal.

Also, A and the kids are about to drive to Chicago to hand them over to their Mom for the rest of the summer in Michigan.  Then Avdi will get a much-needed break, part of it away from home.  I guess I’ll just be house-sitting and doing the usual.  The garden never takes a vacation.  I can’t even remember the last time I got to.  But it’s all good.

One of E’s garden plots (the one with all the huge sunflowers) has been blooming.

I thought this heat would dry up the garden, but instead it’s gone wild.  I actually found a big cucumber in there!  The corn is tasseling, the beans are beaning, the afterthought tomatoes are getting tall, there are peppers after all, and the squash and melon plants are taking over the world and flowering.  Speaking of flowers, the okra is forming its beautiful pale yellow hibiscus flowers.  Lots of other flowers are blooming, finally.  And the herbs are berserk!  The only setback is the weeds, also going berserk.  Hey, how’d that selfie get in there?!  These weeds, I’m telling you!