Hotter Than Hell...

Here in the Midwest, we are in the early days of the typical summer scourge:  the dreaded heat wave.  Today is Day 2 and its forecast to be 90-94F with heat indices around 105F.  Those of you in cool, lovely places like the Pacific Northwest(along the coast), Alaska and England/Ireland/Scandinavia/Siberia are lucky souls, indeed.  I'm sure Texans and other Southerners are laughing themselves silly at us right now.  My brother and his family just returned from a 2-week vacation in Texas/Arkansas/Missouri.  In Dallas, 105F is nothing.  One night, J called from Springfield, Mo., complaining that he was freezing to death.  The temperature:  85F.  He said my sister-in-law was wearing a sweatshirt.  I cannot wait til Autumn arrives and it gets chilly.  They are going to be miserable.  Come winter, they'll be catatonic.  I'll feel wonderful, however.  


It's been a disappointing summer.  I had planned on doing so much: going to museums and art shows, a rodeo, concerts in the park, the big 4th of July city-wide celebration, botanical gardens, etc.  With the exception of my niece's 8th grade graduation and subsequent trip to Cedarburg, I've done bupkis.  It's been way too hot and the mosquitos are the size of ping pong balls.  I haven't even been able to get out to a Baseball game.  The only thing I've been able to do successfully is lie quietly in front of a fan and read.  I'm really champing at the bit to get out.  My hope is that, like last year, it'll get chilly in early September and stay that way til winter.  There's a fabulous Jazz festival Labor Day weekend that I want to go to, Octoberfest (in late Sept.), a big classic car show and other activities.


Oddly enough, my organizational skills are always better in the face of doom.  I've got the laundry and grocery shopping done and most of this week's menu planned and prepped so that I won't have to turn on the oven.  I just made a pasta salad consisting of rotini, diced chicken breast, seedless grapes and poppy seed dressing.  It's wonderful stuff, really.  I also have a stack of books from my BBC list to go through, and as it's probably going to be hellish for the next 10 days I should have no problem finishing them (The Three Musketeers , Wuthering Heights, Atonement, and One Hundred Years of Solitude).