Yesterday I had my normal morning coffee (about noon) and went out and mowed the lawn. The yard is small, but some of it's steep enough to require a technique in which I launch the mower off the top and "hope the blades hit some grass" before it hits bottom**, but since it's a riding mower the only real exertion is "holding on."

I didn't actually notice that the weather was "unusual" although we've had (as of today) 33 consecutive days of "over 100F." It was a bit of a surprise when I came in to see the TV reporting a current temp of 111F (43.9C) with an equivalent "heat index" of 118F (47.8C).

Maybe there's an advantage to being so old and slow I can't work up much of a sweat. I'd take a walk when it cools off a little, say down to 95F; but in my condition it'd be more of a "limp" and my arms get tired hanging on my quarter-staff.

** There are only a few places where my mower has enough traction to go up, so all the cutting has to be "going downhill." The traction is also poor enough that even with the wheels locked, it keeps goin' on down once I tip off the top. But it never goes down fast enough to make a decent breeze.

Current local weather report is that we might see one day at "only 98F" but the forecast is back up (to a peak late in the week at 107). There are currently three "warnings" in the state for thunderstorms with up to half-dollar sized hail and winds to 60 mph, but none of them have enough water in them to be considered a "break in the drought" and they're all very "localized."

If we'd get some decent rain, the 100F temperatures wouldn't be a real bother here for most of us. But the crops are dead (50% of US corn considered gone, according to the Ag report 2 days ago) and the cattle are dying. The drought area extends across half of Texas, a third of Oklahoma, and about a quarter of SW Kansas where no measureable rain has been seen in at least a couple of months. Several nearby towns are on "water rationing" although as yet it's considered "precautionary" for most of the more populated ones.

John