Replies to post #40630 on Cowboys and Cowgirls (WWWEST)

[NovoMira]

Hi Mariner...this photo of Nora the Labrador from the Austin-American newspaper cracked me up...



Meltdown! If you think the heat is making you crazy, you're probably right
By Helen Anders

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

'You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas," Davy Crockett famously said in 1835.

Well, heck. What's the difference? In these dog days of a particularly brutal summer, all we lack is a devil poking us with a pitchfork.

Poor dogs. They don't deserve to have these days named after them. We should name them after some onerous life form like snakes or rats or cockroaches or beets. It feels like it's hot enough to fry a brain on the sidewalk, and in a way, that is what's happening. Scientific tests have verified that, yep, heat messes us up.

A University of Arizona study found that the hotter it is, the more likely you are to honk your car horn at somebody (and, one must assume, the more likely that person is to return a salute of his or her own.)

And a University of Michigan study concluded that the hotter it is, the more Major League Baseball batters get hit by pitches.

We don't need a study to tell us that heat prompts us to make excuses for practically everything. "It's too hot," we say, to work out, cook, walk the dog, join a friend for lunch, shop ... you name it.

What we're suffering from here is cabin fever on the scale of a North Dakotan winter. We hunker down in the air conditioning. We emerge only to get into our cars, turn on the air conditioning, go to our air-conditioned jobs, return home and re-hunker.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness calls the syndrome seasonal affective disorder, whose acronym is the highly apt SAD. Most cases happen in winter, but the alliance says 10 percent happen in the summer. People get depressed, can't sleep, don't want to eat and get all agitated.

This might wind up being the hottest July that Austin has ever had. Through Sunday, according to the National Weather Service, we've had 23 days this month topping 100 at Camp Mabry and 20 days above 100 at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. At press time, it was unclear where Monday's temperature would fall.

The July record for 100-plus is 1998 for Bergstrom, with 25 days, and 1925 for Mabry with 27 days. Depending on how the rest of this week goes, we could best (if you look at this situation as good) Mabry's record and tie Bergstrom's.

The hottest temperature recorded so far this month was 106 on July 8 at Camp Mabry. Mabry's hottest July day was a sweltering 109 degrees in 1954. (Bergstrom hasn't come close; its hottest was 106 on July 19, 1951.) The hottest day ever reported at both locations was the dreaded Sept. 5, 2000, when it was 112 at both Mabry and Bergstrom. Let's not beat that one, shall we?

The weather service says that when you consider daylong temperatures and not just the late afternoon broiler, the hottest July on record was 1954, when the average Bergstrom temperature was 88.5 and the average at Mabry was 89.1. Camp Mabry is on track to break that, with an average so far of 89.5. So far, Bergstrom's average is 87.7.

Is there a silver lining in the lack of clouds? Well, let's see. The gas bill is low. It's easy to find a patio seat at restaurants. And the heat is a good excuse for eating ice cream. In fact, it's an excuse for pretty much everything, including wearing shorts, a tank top and flip-flops to work. But, yes, it's a pretty thin silver lining.

If things don't cool off soon, we might all have to pack up and move to Portland, Ore. Oh, wait. It's supposed to climb above 100 there this week, too.

[NovoMira]

We just got back from Lake Charles, Louisiana, Mariner... the contrast between that lovely green area and where I live was really painful. It even rained while we were there, BTW.

Anyway, as we drove home the further west we went the more obvious it became just how badly the drought has affected us. We saw crops plowed under, cotton barely six inches high (complete failure)....cattle grazing in the fields on dried out, brown vegetation...tanks were dry and the relentless sun bore down on us - mile after mile after mile...

It's truly a sad state of affairs.

What we're suffering from here is cabin fever on the scale of a North Dakotan winter.

[NovoMira]

I'm sorry, really I am... but after listening to that video I really do have to go pee.

BBL

LOLOL