How are you all doing on this fine hot day? Well, I am sure it isn't hot where every single one of you are. But where do all of you guys live, anyways? I'm curious to know! So throw it at me in a comment.

It has been freakin' HOT here, lately. And hotness isn't generally a problem, but when it's humid, it's miserable. With the humidex, it has been between 35 and 45 degrees Celcius, here. For you American folks, that is about 95 to 113 degrees Fahrenheit.

The thing is, my workspace happens to be the hottest room in the house. It's got a nice big South facing window, and it lets in the sun all day. Not to mention, my house is over 130 years old atleast, so there is no air flow... no vents... no A/C... nada. So we have a lot of fans to say the least. We just got one of those shnazzy window A/C units, though, but it got put into the livingroom. And being as my workspace isn't close to the livingroom, I get none of that cool air from the livingroom even if my door is wide open.

The hottest it got was about a week and a half ago, and it was HOT HOT HOT!!! I haven't been swimming in the lake for YEARS namely because I was living in Toronto for two years and this will be my first Summer back in Goderich since I moved back. Plus I am afraid of water. I won't go any deeper than I can stand, and I must touch the bottom. I don't know why I am afraid of deep water, but it might be because I am not that great of a swimmer. I mean, I CAN swim if I had to but I haven't swam in years.

I didn't go swimming a lot as a teenager years ago because I was self-concious - I had a lot of self-inflicted scars and I was never one to show them. I was a stupid miserable teenager, and I didn't do much of anything to be honest... except sit in my room and get myself into trouble. Basically put, it's been a few years since I have done anything like that to myself, as I did it for a total of ten years, and so now the scars are ever-so-slowly fading. They are still very noticeable, but since I am a lot happier now, and no longer doing that to myself, I am not as self-concious about them, anymore. I know that people look at me funny when they are exposed, but I have to get used to it if I am ever going to get over it. I can't very well walk around in the Summer wearing a full body suit, could I?

We went swimming about 4 or 5 days in a row. Usually Lake Huron isn't warm at this time of the year, but it was remarkably warm on those days. I didn't even shiver in the least! It was that warm. It's been a really warm Summer so far, yet it was a very COLD Summer last year. Last year, most people couldn't go swimming in the lake until late August because it just wasn't warm enough. Which is pretty sad.

Anyways, getting back to what I was saying, my room was horribly hot and humid for those days. My clay was practically mush! I leached the hell out of it and it was STILL mush. I was so hot and sweaty that I couldn't concentrate, so I had to call it quits for a few days - I just couldn't do anything. I swear I was working on the same clay piece for hours and nothing was getting accomplished because I just kept messing it up and getting MORE frustrated and irritated. To top it all off in this hot and muggy mess, my clay extruder broke! Normally, anything done in a clay extruder can be done by hand, no problem, but NOT in this heat.

My new extruder JUST came today so I have a LOT of catching up to do. I think I need to work on 7 Custom Industrial Hearts, 4 Antique Brass Hearts, 1 Custom Heart, 2 Brain Cupcakes, 2 Molar Cufflink sets, and 1 Mechanical Jellyfish. Obviously not all of those require an extruder, but I also ran out of other things like Cufflinks and such. It just wasn't a good week, that's for sure. I was ordering supplies and a bunch of things came in at the wrong size that I needed, so I am re-selling them in my Etsy Shop at a cheaper price if anyone is interested.

I am SO GLAD I got a new extruder because I messed my other one up by loading clay into the top when you weren't supposed to. I ended up messing up the barrel by constantly taking the top plunger off and on. I forgot how amazing it USED to work before I messed it up. With my old one, after I screwed it up, getting clay out was a nightmare and wreaked havoc on my hands because it was so hard to turn... with the new one, I can turn it with my pinky and the clay comes out like butter. I'm in lovvvvve. <3

Anyways. Much needs to be done! I shall talk with you guys, later.

Kimberly

P.S - HOLY HELL! Goderich could get wiped off the map in about half an hour. If you don't ever hear from me again, it's because of this:



It's gettin' mighty BLACK out there! O_____O