The Dog Days of Summer*,aka my 100th post

I always wondered what the above phrase meant and if I recall correctly from the wonderful Etymology forum in the defunct New York Times book forums it comes from the rising of Sirius the Dog Star during a period from a date in July to a date in August.I think the term was helical rising.Anyhoo this post is about this and that.Firstly after the so called tree trimmers hacked the large ficus off the patio and ripped out my jasmine and Blue Dawn Flower Vine which I posted the pic of a few months ago the Dawn Flower is already coming back in the back corner above the patio wall.I will have to shield it from the landlord and my evil co-gardener who tells me she doen't like it because it spreads to much.If she doesn't watch it I will transplant some in her large spot in front of the bldg.I get emails from friends who read but don't blog and an old roomate is going to get"Tough trip through Paradise" from the library. While mentioning that there wern't many first person accounts of Native Americans in book form I forgot that I have had a book lying about somewhere for a whle called"Lewis and Clark through Indian Eyes".Lastly while casually looking at fares the other night for my three week trip back to Rochester in mid October I am tempted once again to jump on Amtrack for the trip.I did it in 2004 inSummer for my 30th reunion and had a great time but that trip I had a bedroom each way.In Oct I think coach on a cross country train would be not full and the price rt is 386.00 plus the food one would have to buy onboard.But the train is so relaxing and the Southwest Chief from L.A. to Chic does go through some really beautiful country and the Chic to Rochester Lakeshore Limited is mostly in the dark but the parts of it in light are cool also.There's even an option that on the return I could take an extra day add about 75.00 and take the empire builder from Chic to Portland then the Coast Daylight I think from Portland to L.A..It's called the Coast Starlight headed north from L.A. but I think has the other name going south.I really wish I had been around during the golden age of train travel as there is nothing like it.