Good things happen to those who wait (like I have a choice)

Oh, those crazy Japanese!  They're a fun-loving bunch.  This morning's news showed this office clown dressed up in a dinosaur costume terrorizing his cubicle-mates, especially this poor guy just arriving for work: 

Funny, but seems staged to me.  

Try that here in Texas and you'd probably get popped by a dozen concealed-carry Glocks.

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It's about this time every year that the optimist in me comes out.  I'm sure to the horror of all of you Yankees, I LOVE snow and hold out hope every late-summer that the upcoming winter will be at least a little white in Dallas.  

Why is this on my mind today?  Because today the weatherguessers predict we'll break the all-time record high temperature for this date....103.  UGH!

But before we get to winter we're blessed with about 6-weeks of the most perfect autumn weather you can imagine.  The perfect fall day for me?  After a Saturday doing fun stuff out and about, I retire to my den to watch a big rivalry college football game on TV.  

I'm sitting in my comfy chair with an ample supply of cold brew and football food (nachos works for me), the window beside me open, the evening temps in the 60's with a gentle rain shower in progress.  Clean-smelling fresh air...cool...football...it doesn't get any better!

God Bless America!

But before I can enjoy any of that I have to endure today.  Have I mentioned patience is NOT one of my virtues?

Stay cool everyone.

S

I think we've done this to ourselves

I think everyone in the US would agree that weather patterns the past decade or so have been totally off the charts.  Right now, for example, wildfires are burning in the Pacific Northwest, and the only reason much of the rest of he country isn't on fire, too, is because it's already burned up.

This has so far been the hottest year since records have been kept, and it's also the driest, with 63% of our land mass experiencing drought conditions, hence the wildfires.  And if you watch the news, it seems like the other 37% is flooding.  Things are just completely upside down.

Want more proof the end is near?  The official NOAA forecast for Dallas over the next five days calls for a 30-50% chance of rain every day, with the high temperatures in the upper 80's.  Pinch me!  

And now we have an invasion, caused by an abnormal amount of rain earlier in the year, of mosquitoes carrying West Nile Virus.  It's become so bad in Dallas County (I'm in Collin County, north of Dallas) that they have brought in a private air force to fog the area with an insecticide that will kill the nasty little buggers.  Now if there are any more mysterious deaths the medical examiner will have to decide if it's from the WNV or from ingesting the insecticide that is supposed to kill the WNV.  (Better living through chemistry!)

OK, now follow closely:  Very unexpectedly, scientists have found that the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere in the US has fallen dramatically to its lowest level in 20 years.  That's good, right?

Hmmmm....I'm wondering if maybe our atmosphere has undergone some sort of evolutionary change and has actually become used to CO2, so taking 20% of it out has actually pissed off the atmosphere, and now it's retaliating.  Maybe all these droughts and fires and floods and mosquitoes are just the consequence of a cleaner atmosphere.

Maybe its time we park all those Prius's and plug-ins and pull the covers off our beloved big block Chevy's.  Let's muck things up a little!  Fresh air is SO overrated.  ;)

S

Creative advertising

Hey....it got my attention!

Looks like another "inside" weekend.  The temp is expected to set another record today....107.  I can't remember ever looking forward to autumn more.  It's so hot, even pool water is uncomfortably warm.  Most people have pool heaters to stretch the usable swimming season.  Here we need pool chillers to stretch the usable swimming season.

I went to the gym this morning, which I needed to do, but OMG is it boring!  Later we'll stop by Paradise Bakery for lunch (they make a great club sandwich) then....?  I'm sure by mid-afternoon I'll be listening to K whine about "we never go out and do anything".  "DO" something, as in "expend energy"?  Heck, I'm one small step ahead of spontaneous combustion as it is.  Maybe something fun will pop up on our radar.  I hope so.

S

Some information you can actually use....

In most parts of the US this has been one of the hottest years on record, with little relief in sight.  We've all parked our car out in the sun while we went in to work, shop, etc, then come back to find it scorching hot inside, even with one of those aluminized sun shields in the front window.  And tinted windows help, but....


To cool things off in a hurry, try this:  When you return to your car, open a window on one side of the car, then on the other side open and close the door 5 times.  This turns over the air much faster and cools things off in a fraction of the time.


You can see a demonstration for yourself by visiting The Presurfer here.  The video has Japanese titles, but you can still get the idea.  I'm going to give this solution a great workout.  Anything to beat this miserable Texas heat!


S