Tales from the Heat Wave

Well, don't I just feel so blessed to be an Austinite this summer?!? Check out this article where it talks about how on Wednesday we broke the previous record for hottest summer by having 70 days in the triple digits. And we're going to break our own record many more times as the heatwave continues unabated. Lucky us! Take THAT 1925, previous holder of the record. We'll show you what a REAL heatwave feels like!

Sigh. How are the job and housing markets inside the article circle?

Two stories related to the heat: one sad and one funny. One day just after lunch, I was warming up Boo's milk to put him down for a nap. He opened up the back door and, even though I'd already taken off his shoes, I thought why not let him go run around outside for two minutes and get nice and tired for his nap? About two minutes later I heard him screaming on the back porch. I knew immediately that his little feet must have been burning on the concrete in the 100-plus degree heat. I brought him in, soaked his feet in cool water, then put him down for his nap. He was still crying hard, though. And it wasn't the "I want attention, Mommy" cry, it was the distress cry. I put him in a cool bath to try and sooth his feet. It was only then that I noticed the huge burn blister on the bottom of his left foot. I felt horrible! He hobbled around for a couple of days, and was then as good as new. He doesn't go outside anymore without shoes!

On a lighter note, the heat wave and accompanying drought have brought us some unwanted house guests. I've seen 3 or 4 very large cockroaches in our house over the summer. Sammie says they come in for water. They're always unpleasant, but I also lived with a lot of cockroaches in Brazil, so they don't give me heart attacks... Until the other night... I was "in the privy" doing a crossword puzzle. (Hey! some people wind their watches, some talk on cell phones, some read books, I do crossword puzzles. Don't judge.) Suddenly, I felt something on my shoulder. I thought my braided hair had just shifted on my shoulder and I reached up absently to brush it off. A GIANT COCKROACH FELL ONTO THE FLOOR IN FRONT OF ME!! I screamed and attacked it with my book of crosswords. (Fortunately it was the jumbo edition!) Sammie, who bolted out of bed and ran to the bathroom door when he heard my screaming, thought it was hysterically funny. I was finally able to laugh at it the next morning.

So, as my spin class instructor likes to say, "See you next heat wave!"