Hi Ceejay

I am in Dallas and yesterday we hit 36 days in a row at 100 degrees or better. If we made it today that is 37 straight days. Its Dallas so summers are hot, but heat has been pretty relentless. Another problem is we have not had any rain in a long time. The Dallas Morning News last week had an article that said the cotton crops were burnt up. That cotton not to long ago was at sky high prices so a lot of cotton was planted in the spring as is now burnt up. However, cotton has come down quite a bit from the highs. The farmers need about a price of 100 to break even and that is what is it at now. There was an article the other day that the cattle farmers are starting to take cattle to market because there is no grass to feed them and they will have to pay for feed such as straw/grain to feed them. Not only in Texas, but Oklahoma too. I have no clue how this weather affects these markets, I just want it to cool down and rain.

I guess the grand daddy of summers was 1980 when there was 42 straight days of 100 degrees down here, and there was something like 28 days of at least 105 (that we haven't had). We are on pace to get to 42 I believe Fri or Sat. The one problem we have that did not have in 1980 is that at night we don't cool off much. The lows of the day are higher than 1980. The other day I got up at 6:00 AM and it was 86. They said it was because the city is bigger and because of more suburban neighborhoods. Guess all that cement holds the heat.

Air conditioners are being stolen. There was a 79 year old woman two weeks ago reported here AC stolen and two days later she was found dead due to the heat. I think we have had somewhere around 12 heat related deaths in Texas so far.

Air conditioners are running all the time and I hate to see my next electric bill. I have been in the Dallas area since the last week of Aug in 1984, and this one is wearing on me. I wonder what the heck they did in the summer before AC was invented.

I go for a walk around the park here early in the morning and in talking to the people we are all trying to get around the park before the sun gets over the tree line or comes from behing the clouds. I feel like Ridick in the move Cronicles of Ridick where he is running the surface of the planet Creamatoria before the sun comes up. Well maybe next week will start to cool down, and get some rain.