Fireworks are starting up, we heard a couple of loud Boom!s tonight, and a Thundershirt is on order for Pepper.

This evening I took down the vertical louvered blind over the back sliding glass door and the space looks so much larger now. And uglier. It is totally fogged, not just weeping, but it looks like it has been sandblasted. I have insulating drapes I'm pulling in front of it (especially until I get the patio cover replaced to stop all of the evening sun, though the trees are starting to do some of that work for me now.)

And this brings me closer to the package deal that I am considering for this summer - replacing the sliding glass doors and fixing the patio cover to give the whole back of the house a nicer look. It won't be Andersen windows, that would be overkill (as nice as they are) - I need a right hand door installed correctly so I can put a piece of wood in the track to keep someone from opening it from outside. As it is now, the original builder installed it backwards, so someone could put a plank of wood in the frame outside to keep me from opening it.

The old blinds still work and look good (dusty), so they'll be wrapped up in plastic and donated to Goodwill. I could offer them on Freecycle, but I don't want to fool with answering questions about size, installation, etc.

We had a little spit of rain, barely enough to wet the bottom of the bucket sitting out on the patio, but enough to make the air incredibly humid. Trash is out, laundry finished, dishes washed and/or in the dishwasher. Feels like a Sunday night.