So summer weather finally found us.  I guess that’s the best excuse I can find for not updating since WEDNESDAY.  I should have my WordPress taken away from me.  Truly shameful.

But seriously.  I hate this hot weather.  HATE. IT.  It just magnifies my intense dislike for Reno right now.  As if I didn’t have enough other reasons to completely loathe living here, now Mother Nature turns on the heat.

We went to explore the Legends shopping complex over at the Sparks Marina yesterday.  It’s sort of an outdoor mall (but in my opinion, kicks the doors off the Summit Sierra which I pretty much detest just on principle) with lots of great shops, most of them factory outlet stores.  Like the Carters store.  I will be going back there this weekend.  And it will be amazing.  The jammies alone had me turning cartwheels in the aisles.

The only drawback? It was so freaking HOT.  And for some reason, where we’re located, when the sun really gets going it just burns through and sears your skin.  The elevation?  The dryness?  WHO KNOWS.  But it sucks.  I hate it…. hate hate hate hate hate it.  And everytime I see the weather man on TV gleefully forecast yet more scorching days ahead I want to drive over to the television studio and kick him in the head.

I don’t like living here.  I feel it amplifies everything that is frustrating in my life right now.  I am so isolated and so hot and so tired and pretty much everyone who lives here sucks ass.  I’m sorry if you live here and feel you don’t suck ass but this is my honest assessment.  There’s just enough people crammed into this valley that everyone starts going all “Lord of the Flies” when they are out and about.  People drive like lunatic assholes.  Crowds of people embrace the mob mentality and everything becomes “every man for himself.”   Rudeness prevails.  Doors aren’t held open, people cut in lines, inconsideration is the order of the day.  Put miserable hot weather on top of that and I HAVE HAD IT.

I used to kind of like living here.  Yeah, that whole feeling is GONE.

There.  Is that enough whining for a Monday?  I sure hope so.  I pulled out all the stops.  I even feel a little ill about it, to be honest.  But everyone knows you can’t start off a Monday properly until you’ve bitched and moaned about something.  Up to and including Monday itself.  I feel I covered my bases.   But just for good measure:

Monday AND Reno can BITE ME.

I feel better now.

I know I complain a lot about the wind around these parts.  It is constant.  And it is a year-long threat.  And I wonder if people think I’m exaggerating and then Reno will get on the news with the wind or a truck will blow off the interstate, all but landing in our backyard.  And no, not exaggerating.

It gets really tiresome, especially when it keeps you up at night.

Even MORE so when it keeps the kids up at night.

But the other day, I just had to take a picture of the sky because the wind was doing some really cool things to the clouds.

It’s not often that I can say anything even remotely nice about the wind, so you better enjoy it while it lasts.  The next post I write that references the wind will surely be a scathing diatribe.

It has been well-documented on this blog that my greatest of Weather Nemesis is Wind. I hate the wind. Hate. It. There pretty much isn’t anygood reason for wind. And I’m not talking about a breeze here. I mean WIND. The kind that rips downs fences and threatens my sanity.

We’ve had an awful lot of wind lately. And, frankly, it’s starting to piss me off. Because behind that wind has been a great potential for snow. But as long as the wind is here, the snows right over the top of us and heads for parts east. Around here, they call it a “rain shadow“. I call it “a tease”:

See that there?  That’s what the radar looks like RIGHT NOW.  And will we actually see the snow here in Reno.  NOPE.  I will BET YOU.  Damnit.

See, I’ve been reading on everyone’s blogs about all the snow they’ve been getting and more than a little jealous.  I want to have a disgusting amount of snow too!  I deserve a white Christmas too, don’t I?  It’s not FAIR!

We’re supposed to have some snow in the next couple of days.  There was supposed to be snow today but… yeah, not so much.  MAYBE later?  I’ll hold my breath.  But here is the forcast for the next few days:

And that’s backed off quite a bit from what it said before, which was also AM Snow tomorrow and snow on Friday (which I was really, really counting on).  But at the very LEAST can’t I get some snow on Wednesday and Thursday?  For Christmas?  Pretty, pretty please?

You didn’t think i would forget to post today, did you?  Not after being conscientious enough to post every single day while we were in Elko using nothing more than my (supa-cool) iPhone?  Of course not!  But I wanted to post some pictures of what your average road trip between Elko and Reno looks like.  And of course I couldn’t just upload pictures STRAIGHT FROM THE iPHONE (because surely it didn’t work this last weekend).  So I had to wait until I got home and then I had to futz with the pictures in Lightroom (which wanted to be updated first).  And we needed dinner.  And now the kids want to go to bed.  So this is actually taking a lot longer than I expected.  Whoops.  Anyhow… here goes.  Be prepared for a lot of BROWN (and water, as it was a rather wet day here in Nevada).

When ISN’T there road work going on in Nevada??

My traveling companion

See? Lots of brown.

And lots of trucks.

Getting closer to Winnemucca

We ALWAYS stop here for a break. ALWAYS.

Lots of little raindrops on the windshield today.

Liam is content with his stuffed animals, sippy cup and cars.

Moo!

This truck stop is almost exactly halfway between Elko and Reno.

Snow!

This “building” looks more and more rundown each time we travel past it. Someday I’ll imagine it won’t be there anymore.

Once again… lots of trucks

This was the first and last time we saw the sun today.

Our first glimpse of the Sierra Mountains since last week.

Yay! We can see Reno!

And up the interstate towards home… at last!

Nope, you’re not seeing things.  My YNTR list is back this week!  And, bonus for you, it includes two weeks of linky goodness. I still maintain that I may not be doing this list every week.  But I will when I can and when it’s not going to cause me an undue amount of grief to put it together.   And, as it would happen, this week the grief has not been caused.  It’s a mellow Saturday morning around these parts, Liam is watching “Ratatouille” on cable and Kile is snoring in his recliner.  All is right with the world.

This first post is something I could relate to.  Should I go Mac and never come back? from Mandajuice is much like a similar post I wrote not that long ago.  And, just like myself, she finds herself wooed by the seductive iPhone and repelled by a crappy PC.  I’ll be interested to see what she picks, especially since I’m 99.9% sure I’m going to get a MacBook when the time comes.

And in the “Long-Awaited” category, we have Ezra from amalah . com.   I literally felt my heart swell when I saw this sweet picture and the details on the birth.  She is officially the mom of two boys!  I can’t wait to see how the weeks and months ahead are for her and her family.  Congratulations, Storchs!

I can DEFINITELY relate to The Hot Fuss™* and Me from temporarily me.  In fact, I may have thought these very words myself on more than one occasion in the last week or so.  Or the last month or so.  Or the last six months or so.  Sometimes, a bad mood just gets ahold of you and you can’t shake it.  And sometimes, your kid wants to be superglued to your side.  And when the two meet?  Well… that’s when you get a post like this.

And I know you’re probably sick of me talking about it already, but Her New Hobby from Confessions of a Pioneer Woman made me cackle a little bit because The Power of the iPhone can grip ANYBODY, even housewives who live out in the country. And the text messages from her daughter were just too darned funny. I think someone likes “Napoleon Dynamite”!

On the flip side, we have My Grandpa: October 5, 1921- October 14, 2008 from Joy Unexpected. This was a touching and sad post about her grandfather who passed away this last week. It’s been a long time since all of my grandparents passed, but I could keenly feel her loss through her words. I hope she finds peace, now that her grandfather has found his. My sympathies to her and her family.

Being a Reno citizen as well, I can appreciate Fall Where? from EmilyPie. I love her summation of the season here in our town, and how schizophrenic they often tend to be. However, I do disagree with her assessment of summer and the need for air conditioning (I am sure I would perish without it). I love winter, always have, always will. But yes. Fall is like a week long around here. I could do with some more fall, to be honest.

This post gets filed under the “ZOMG” category. ZOMG! Twilight Soundtrack Playlist Just Released! from MamaPop shares with us the fantabulous news of the new “Twilight” movie soundtrack. Can you believe I already have some of these songs on my iTunes? BEFORE this list was released? Oh, I’m a hardcore fan, ya’ll. And you can bet I’ll have the rest of these songs when the soundtrack is released. I cannot WAIT to hear the one recorded by Robert Pattinson.

Enough is Enough from Queen of Spain Blog is a post about the turn in tone the political race has taken lately. And I wish I could say in the intervening days since she first posted this that the voices of hate have toned down but I really don’t think they have. I think they may have gotten worse. But I definitely share her feelings and hope that people settle the heck down. And lets find some decency in all of this, please? Aren’t we better than this? Please tell me that we are.

Lastly, we have My Husband is Not My Keeper, also from temporarily me. This spoke to me because I have often had these very same feelings. Being a stay at home mom, and not having any of my own income, I often feel like my voice is dimmed somewhat. I think that’s pretty common. And it’s as much my fault as any one else’s. But all the time, this is an impassioned, important post. You should all read it.

So there we go.  Another week’s list in the hopper.  This should be enough to keep you out of trouble this weekend.  As for me, we have a baby costume to find and a pumpkin to pick out (nope, we don’t have that yet either).  Should be fun!  Happy Weekend, ya’ll.