The Great Debate

 

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I had business in another city on Monday, the first day of August.   The ride from my home to my appointment is about 120 miles, each way.  I wanted to beat as much of the heat as possible, so I set my alarm at around the time the U.S. Marines landed on Guadalcanal.  Well, maybe I slept in a bit later, but 0400 arrived at the same instant I turned out my lights for the evening.

I sipped and guzzled all the tea I could hold, hoping at least one eye or the other would be open for the entire journey.  

As I waited for consciousness to arrive, I snapped on the television and scanned several stations for a report on the definitive issue of our times.  That is right; I was looking for the weather reports.  The first estimate I got was for a high temperature of 105.  No chance for rain and the country might be broke before it got that hot anyway.  Educated meteorologists debated back and forth.

If this were not gloomy enough, the next person guessed the temperature would hit 106.  The Weather Channel posted a 102, I think, and I was on their side, but the screen was too blurry for me to say for sure. 

By the time I left the house at 0730, the high bid was 108 and I felt the weight of summer gloom heavy on my shoulders.  “Why would anyone live here,” I asked myself rhetorically.  “Why indeed,” I answered.  I sped south where the air was 90 at 0900.  “Very symmetrical,” I thought.

In Washington, D.C., The Congress was in full showboat mode, dazzling the people with a full frontal assault of smoke, mirrors and dire predictions.  Many in Texas had bigger fish to fry.  Those fish would be the ones they picked up from the mud where their stock tanks used to be.  Without water, cattle and fish are equally perishable commodities.  You can sell cattle, but you might as well eat the fish.

I arrived home in the middle of the afternoon and collapsed.  Even in a 68-degree cabin, the intense heat dehydrated me.  Two liters of Gatorade later, I was able to collapse on the sofa until the cool of the evening.

Whoever had 107 in the pot won the prize yesterday.  I fear that will not cover it today.  I am guessing 109.  Anybody want the over or under?

I plan to spend today reading brochures from Finland, Yellow Knife, Yukon Territory and other frozen places as a spiritual present to myself.  Later, I may go out for ice cream.

Stay in the shade, my friends.  November and autumn will be here before you know it.