Gasp

Reality check: it's 8:30 PM and cooling down. That means tonight that it's all the way down to 110. Doesn't quite hit you in the face when heading out with the dogs for their two minute do-it-or-forget-it potty break like it does late afternoon when it hit 123. Yes, that's in the shade. And yes, we've checked the thermometer with the broken down temperature readings for our area through the year where we consistently within 2 degrees, either higher or lower, of what somebody else's backyard records. So I trust it.

Cabin fever is setting in. I know I can drive legally now before I need an afternoon percoset and get out when I want to. I just don't want to. Not in this. Mornings are better. Tomorrow the forecast low is 89. That's at 6:00. By 8:00 it's supposed to be 99 already. Small window for activities for the reasonably sane.

Not everybody is, of course. Folks die. They go hiking too far too late with too little water and no sense. No surprises there. It's the same folks who wear the wrong shoes on the mountain, hike alone, again don't take enough water, and manage to make the news in all the wrong ways. It will be tempting tomorrow when we hear of the latest casualties to talk back to the TV set, "Well, duh!"

It's not meant to be self-righteous. Not completely. Four days without AC was plenty miserable to have gained some empathy. But partly, I'll admit.  I do a lot of stupid things. Just not that.