Unless you have been living under a rock, you will recognize this character as a Pikachu.  That's all I know about it except for the fact that it plays a large part in various Pokémon games. 

I am not a Pokémon player (and I think it's funny that blogger automatically adds the accent over the e) but my girls were when they were growing up. 

"But Donna Lee" , (I can hear you saying), "why are you sharing this with us?"  I'll tell you.  After several weeks of ungodly hot and humid days/nights, we have been finally blessed with a few days of absolutely delightful summer weather.  The kind you think about but don't experience very often.  It was sunny and warm but with a breeze and low humidity.

Just the kind of day you might think to yourself, "Hmm, it might be nice to have dinner in the park by the river tonight".  And so you make plans and rush home and pull together dinner and chairs and drinks and pick up your spouse at the train and head for your favorite park.  Only to get there to find that there is no place to park because the lot is full to bursting and that the park is full of people. 

This is a popular park but not usually on a Tuesday evening.  There were over 100 people milling around.  As we sat there, we noticed they were all looking at their cell phones and it dawned on us that they were Pokémon Go players.  I stopped a young woman and asked what was going on and she confirmed that indeed, these people were playing the game.

We had to turn around and go on home because it would not have been peaceful and/or relaxing to have all of these people milling around as we tried to eat our dinner.  I had no idea that there was more than one "release" of characters for people to find.  I have since learned that there are something like 7 generations of characters. 

So, we will find a new park for the time being.......

We have turned of the a/c for the past few days and it's been so nice to air out the house and let in fresh air-except for Mr. Skunk who seems to have taken up residence in either our yard or our neighbors. He (or possibly she) gets agitated around 2 in the morning and the smell is strong enough that it wakes me up.  I am all for Live and Let Live but I think he/she should live somewhere else. 

On Sunday, Pk, Elanor and I went to Smithville Inn for brunch and to walk around.  It was warm but not uncomfortablly hot.  We bought some chocolate flavored coffee and some toasted coconut flavored coffee and if you mix them, it tastes like a warm Mounds bar.  Just delicious.  I also was talked into this.  It holds Jelly Belly jelly beans.  I love jelly beans and these are my favorites.  It is sitting on the file cabinet in my office and has become very popular.  The machine itself was not expensive (it's all plastic) but keeping it filled with jelly beans might get to be.  I'm thinking I could use M&Ms as well. 

I am no longer teaching Handle with Care as my body protests (and I promised Pk I would give it up after my detached retina surgery last summer).  My supervisor asked if I could do a presentation on the verbal parts of HwC and I said yes.  I have been teaching it for over 12 years and have a good deal of information on handling aggressive patients.  I don't particularly enjoy speaking in front of people and if I start thinking about it, my heart rate goes up but I will be presenting my information on Sept 21 at our All Staff meeting.  I am using a book called Verbal Judo (G. Thompson).  If you have to deal with people all day, it's a terrific book on how to talk to people and defuse possibly volatile situations. 

Other than that, life is moving along.  We have a long weekend coming up for Labor Day and Pk and I are going to stretch it an extra day and possible make a day trip to the beach.  We haven't been for a while and we both love the beach.  Today, I am going for the final dental visit of the summer (it's number 5).  I have had 2 crowns, a root canal and a filling.  Today the last crown is placed in so it's a relatively easy visit.  No drilling or needles or other painful stuff. 

Time to get some work done.  Happy Wednesday!