What day is this again?

Few among men are they who cross over to the further shore. The others merely run up and down the bank on this side.
~ Dhammapada

I woke up this morning at about 4:30 thinking about things I need to do at work, and I suddenly thought, "Oh, no! We completely forgot to take out the trash!" (We take it out on Sunday nights for pick-up on Monday morning.) So I started thinking, if I took it out when I got up in the morning, could I beat the trash trucks, or should I get up now and take it out? If I missed the trucks, it would sit in the garage for another week, or actually, another week and a day, since a week from Monday is a holiday.

And I thought, and I forgot to do the last load of laundry! I remember thinking, oh, it's late, I'll wait to do the last load tomorrow, but what was I thinking? I laid there thinking, well, that load was whites, I've got plenty of underwear, there are a couple of shirts in there that I'd like to wear next week, but that's just too bad. And I thought, what day did I think it was?? How could I have thought that I still had another day of weekend?

I turned over to look at the clock to see what time it was, and noticed that I hadn't even set the alarm! I thought back to the night before. Was I that exhausted when I went to bed, or that distracted, that I didn't even think to turn the alarm on?

And then it hit me. Wait a second. What day is this? I thought, okay, yesterday Bob played in a golf tournament. It was Saturday. Today is Sunday. I don't have to go to work today, there is another weekend day. Plenty of time to do laundry, and the trash doesn't have to go out until tonight!

I remember an old Dilbert cartoon where Dilbert wakes up and lies there in bed trying to figure out what day it is, and when he figures out that it's Saturday, he says something like, "I'm the happiest man in the universe!" It felt something like that.

It's been a quiet, calm, very relaxing weekend. No plans at all. Yesterday Bob got up early and went out to play in a golf tournament, and I got up, too, and read, and checked email, then went back to bed and slept for another couple of hours. When I got up, I went to the post office, put gas in the car, went to the bank, the library, and Target, and that was pretty much it.

I got up a little earlier today, and decided to go out and walk before it got too hot, but it was already hot at 9:30. I'd probably have to go out at dawn in order to have it actually be cool. We're still averaging temperatures over 100, and with no rain in sight (and no rain all month), we're in the middle of a drought. The town to the south of us has banned all "non-essential" water use, and I imagine we're not going to be far behind. I ran the sprinkler for awhile in the backyard today for the sake of the trees.

Every time I drive out of our neighborhood I see so many trees that look like they're dying. I don't know if they are dying, or if they're just going into hibernation--Bob said we probably won't have any autumn colors this year, and I'm sure that's right. Maybe they're going into their autumn mode right now. It just makes me sick to see them. I hope they pull out of it.

I'm not even trying to keep the grass green--most of the lawns are dry and brown. It's not really the cost of the water that concerns me the most, but the wastefulness of watering lawns in this kind of heat. Every time I drive by a lawn that's lush and green I wonder how the property owners can justify that kind of extravagance.