Labor Day, Power Outages and Soccer Saturdays

A couple weekends ago we were fortunate enough to be included in a last-minute Labor Day get-together.  After our fire station visit, we really didn't the weekend could get any better.  But we had a blast.  Of course, I could not get the kids to take my picture-taking seriously-- so this is the best I could get:

We had a great time eating, chatting with friends, and swimming.  It's been a warm, warm September, so we were especially grateful for the invitation.

This week (and weekend) has seen what assume are record-breaking temperatures.  We have an almost-30-year old air conditioner, and it needs to be replaced.  We try not to use it at all because of the expense, but when it's 90 degrees at night, it's awfully difficult to sleep.  And in a one-story house, we can't really keep the windows open (not that there is much relief from the outside anyway.  But this Friday we decided for maybe the second time this year to leave the A/C on.  It had hit around 107 during the day- soccer had been cancelled* for the evening, rec soccer was canceled* for today, and we knew the kids would have a hard time sleeping.

Of course, our plans were foiled by a power outage.  It wasn't our whole area.  It wasn't even our whole block-- we could see the street lights on at the end of the streets.  So we gathered the kids into the family room, so they could feel safe.  The power came back on just a couple hours later, and we went the kids to their rooms.  Then it kicked off again about an hour later and kicked back on around 3:30am.  Every time it went off or on, it woke us up.  By morning, the temperature had dropped to around 76, so we grabbed the kids and headed to the park for an interval run.

By noon-time, the temperatures were heading toward triple digits.  We were surprised that Casey's soccer game was not canceled, and we were contemplating not letting him play.  In the middle of the day.  In the heat.  But there seemed to be a breeze, and so play he did.  I even remembered my camera today.  Here are some shots:

 I just love how graceful he looks in the first two pictures (he is number four), and I love the look of concentration on his face in that last one.  Someone must have gotten the camera when I wasn't looking, because here is what else I found:

Luckily, Casey is swimming now at an impromptu soccer gathering, and Marcie is headed off soon to a sleepover with someone who has a pool and functioning air conditioning.  Casey's game tomorrow is at 8:30am, so it should be cooler to start with.  Supposedly, temperatures should start falling this week.  I guess we're just getting a "late" summer this year.

By the way, I love my new job.  Even though I have a lot of papers to comment on each week, I love that I can sit through an entire soccer game and never once check my email.  For now, life is good.

*P.S. I spelled cancelled (canceled) two different ways and figured spell-check would catch it.  When it didn't correct either version, I looked it up.  Apparently both spellings are correct!