if you think it's hot here...




you are looking at weather maps of north texas, weather patterns and temperatures. looking at the weather patterns (or lack thereof), those incredibly small green and yellow dots are pictures of an increasingly rare substance in our area: rain. we are in the midst of a terrible drought-- something like 30 inches behind average rainfall for this year. i am not sure why duncanville has not imposed the same water restrictions as cedar hill, only a mile away, but i will not complain too much. i've been watering our lawn every two or three days (always after 8:00 p.m.), and the grass is still green. although recently, when the water hits the grass there is an audible hhhiiisssss and steam comes from the ground. ok, maybe i am exaggerating a little, but not much.

look at the temperature map, showing you exactly what our thermometers have been dealing with over the past 10 days. those are current temperatures, not forecast highs, which we usually do not reach until around 5:00 p.m. so two hours ago we were at 102, on our way to a high of 105. tomorrow we'll be down to 104, and only 100 on wednesday. thursday and friday we might actually get back to double digits, but i'm not holding my breath. christy has to deal every night with my constant complaining when i hear the weather reports. of course the worst thing is the "heat index," a formula that factors in the humidity levels. so outside it's 104, but it feels like 108. look: satan's legions are considering texas as a holiday retreat. i don't need to know anything else about how hot it feels outside.

there are certainly stewardship issues "cooking" in here somewhere. should we water our lawns in the midst of a drought? i know church members who do not water their yards during the summer, restrictions or not. but one of the main reasons we bought our specific house was its lawn, so our boys would have a fun, cool spot to play. there are also broader implications to consider, such as global warming (i have not seen an inconvenient truth, but hear it is good) and energy over-consumption that must impact climate change-- is anyone still in denial about that?

thinking about the heat and lack of rain outside is painful enough (and i have to walk home soon!!), but then i am reminded that it's only mid-july, and there's another 10 weeks or so of this ahead of us. now i am really sweating.

p.s. today, july 17, is my sister's birthday. she and baby adler are doing better.

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