File this one under bang up endings to Labor Day.

We’d just sat down to dinner last night when an explosion rocked the house. So we run around like chickens with their heads cut off, looking out windows. I saw the fire and smoke rolling into the sky first.

The house across the creek and south of us blew up. Actually, the firefighters are pretty sure a new grill on the patio/deck exploded. The propane tank flew across the street into a church’s parking lot.

The smell was awful last night, but with TV news helicopters overhead, most of it got dispersed faster. This morning, the stink is nearly all gone.

Good news is NO loss of life. The back of the house is totally gone, and it also blew a hole in their roof. Windows in houses on either side of this one were cracked or shattered. Scary!

Vicki Wurgler won an autographed copy of Falcon’s Mistress by Donna Birdell. Congrats Vicki!

Thanks to everyone who entered contest #1 this month.

There’s still time to enter contest #2. Check the contests page on my website for details.

There’s been a thread going on a loop about women coloring their hair. My first reaction was to skip them all, since I’m a licensed cosmetologist and I often am tempted to give my professional opinion. I know that’s seldom wanted, but still– I’m tempted. 🙂

The gist is that women tend to color their hair too darkly as they age, and it looks fake. Yeah, doh! This isn’t news.

I’ve preached this for years, and urged my clients to lighten an overall color, and add multi highlights. Heck, even a simple “reverse highlight” makes a huge difference to how old a woman looks, and doesn’t chain a client to a salon and touch ups every month.

Simple rule of thumb is make the hair look natural, and that often takes multi layers of color.

I just finished mowing the yard–all four acres of it–and I can say with certainty that the dog days of summer are here. Wow, it’s miserable hot and humid.

Added to this chore is the sickening fact that my lawn mower is about ready to give up the ghost. I know a cylinder blew the last time I mowed, and I’m running on one. Crawling better describes it. The guy who fixed it in the spring said if it went again, that was it. Bury the *$%@ and buy new. *sigh*

The only grass that had grown was the crappy stuff–saw grass, water grass, crab grass. It looks ugly standing tall, and uglier cut short because it’s just a bunch of browish stubbs then.

Do I care? No!

I don’t have a lawn service–wouldn’t have one even if I could afford it. There’s too much poison out there already without me contributing. Besides, if I fertalized, re-seeded, de-thatched, aerated, watered, yada, yada, I’d have to mow grass more often.

That takes time–my writing time. So I’ll be content with the spotty lawn and strive just to keep it down until the summer is history.

I hate those two words.

Lately I’ve ran into that phrase on several frustrating occasions. One was a pair of shoes I wanted sooo badly pre-conference. They weren’t available in my size, and the clerk actually snickered because I wear a size 5 shoe.

The second instance is the most annoying because its a cluster and it all revolves around the fact I have dial up. I want DSL so badly, but guess what? It’s NOT AVAILABLE in my area.

So I’m seriously considering road runner, if it’s not too costly. We don’t have cable–I’m not a TV person and can’t see forking over money for something I’d rarely watch. The only TV freak in the house is my mom, and she watches the same shows on broadcast TV everyday, including the re-runs. Ad nauseum.

So that’s my rant for the day. What’s yours?