Micah Burkette   Micah Burkettes place on the web to blog

This is the first I have heard of a city that does not allow cursing in public. If you are heard using any curse words, you get a ticket with a hefty fine. I really don’t see how this skirted the free speech and freedom of expression ideals. Just be warned that Virginia Beach takes cursing very personally and does not allow it. At least they have posted warning signs on all the street corners – of course, I had no idea what the signs even meant until I asked someone local.

The leaves are still falling in my neighborhood, even though they starting turning color back in early October. I think it might have to do with so little wind this year.

My neighbor, Josh, has twice as many trees in his yard as I do. His whole back yard is shaded with trees, as I only have about 6 or 7 that I have to mow around. The problem with having so many tees is having to rake up all the leaves in the fall.

Today, both Joshand I were out there raking leaves to get them bagged before the trash truck comes around in the morning. If I miss the trash truck, I either have to stash the bagged leaves for another week or drive them all the way across town tot he recycling center that accepts leaves and yard waste.

Tonight we all get an extra hour of sleep, thanks to Daylight Savings Time coming to an end. I always set my clocks back when the late night news comes on, as I am rarely up at 2:00 am to do the official change back. I figure that if I’m asleep I don’t know when it’s 2:00 am anway.

We currently have too many cats.  It wasn’t planned, it just happened.  My wife and I had two cats, Oliver and Sugaree,  that are more like our babies  than pets.  A friend asked if we could “babysit” her two cats while she was in between homes, and she hasn’t retrieved them!  Four cats is a lot.  We have multiple cat boxes and way too many cat food bowls around the house.  They also make too much noise at night while I am trying to sleep!  I am calling the friend and asking her to come back for her cats soon!  I can’t take this much longer!!

The whole month of August has been Dog Days as far as I am concerned. The hot weather never gave us any break at all. It has been hot, in the 90′s and sometimes breaking into the 100′s, every single day. And it stays hot at night, too. I remember as a kid the night would bring some relief. We could go to bed around 10:00 with all the window open and a fan blowing in the corner and be fine with sleeping comfortably. Not this year. As late as midnight and it has still been over 80 degrees. A fan just blows the hot air around, it doesn’t cool you. I have friends who have been trying every trick, like putting a big bowl of ice in front of the fan, to keep cool. Frankly, I can’t wait for this summer to be over and although I don’t like cold weather much, this heat has got us all beat down.