Hot Time, Summer in the hemisphere!

Heat Taxes Utilities, Human Endurance . I’m not sure that this is common knowledge, but its summer where I am. It gets hot here in the summer. I’m hot, you’re hot, it’s hot here it’s hot there it’s pretty much hot all over. I bet it’s hot pretty much over the entire hemisphere. It’s August! If it wasn’t hotter then hell outside that would be news. I just think the P.R machine behind An Inconvenient Truth may have gotten out of hand. People are losing their minds! In Ohio, they are reminding the folks that there is less sun inside than outside, I knew the GOP had been in charge there too long - Residents Warned Not To Spend Time Outside In Heat. Duh. I went to Yahoo to look it up. Shockingly, we are learning, in August it's hot, hot, hot. Who would have thunk it?

When I went to look at it there were around 3000 references to the heat, I’m fairly certain that there is actual news being made out there, for instance, The War. Or more correctly, thanks to the largess of the Bush admin and their client states, the wars. Now, war is news. You even have your pick, are you bucking the trend and Bushcos wishes, still interested in Iraq? Or for you old school peeps,Afghanistan? Or for generation Ipod, Lebanon?

I almost forgot North Korea!. True, the wars got more hits than the heat, but the heat is gaining. It's a sexier story and there aren't any contentious red state/blue state issues.

Even Dogger is not above whining about it. I came home after work she was stretch out under the desk, where she was when I left her, you know, nine hours ago. She finally stirred herself and I dutifully took her out to relieve herself. Dogger poked her nose out the door and shook her head.

Me - Go pee.

Dogger - I’m okay.

Me - No. Out.

Dogger - It’s hot.

Me - and you would know that how?

Dogger - It smells hot. I got a breaking news bulletin from CNN and they said it was really, really bad. I'm going to hold it.

Me - Its okay.

Dogger - I don’t need to go out.

Me - Did you learn how to use the cat box?

Dogger - I’ve been restricting my fluid intake.

Me - That is contra-indicated, I read that on Yahoo.

Dogger - Lets go back indoors.

Me - It’s really not all that bad. Do you want to try the backyard? Why, I can remember The Summer of ‘80

Now, that was a harsh summer. 100 days of a 100 and over. I did learn though that you can’t really fry an egg on the side walk no matter how hot it is. I tried, when the street failed me I even tried it on a metal slide. The egg and side walk thing is a myth as is the egg and slide. It just doesn’t get hot enough.

That summer my Mommy decided that even though you couldn’t really fry an egg on the sidewalk, it was too hot for her baby birds to go outside themselves and she wanted us to not drive her insane inside so she packed us up and we all went out to California to see my Grandmother. I lived in Dallas, Texas and my Grandmother lived outside San Francisco. We went by bus. I’m not sure how far it really is but by bus it was 14, 235 miles. I’m not kidding. The bus stopped every three city blocks the whole way. The locals treated a cross country bound Greyhound like a crosstown ride to the grocery. For 14,235 miles. It took less time to get the settlers to San Francisco a 150 years ago then it took to get us from Dallas to the coast by bus in 1980.

But. This summer is not the summer of '80, it’s not even the summer that 500 people died in Chicago. It’s a little warm, it’s kind of hot, but its not newsworthy.