Texas Heat

It's that time of year again...hot and dry in Texas, so I thought I'd post these words of wisdom. Both for those of you who endure Texas summers year after year, and the rest of you who have never had the pleasure of walking into a blast furnace.

Aside: Today was the 21st day this summer of over 100° temps, and August starts tomorow! Yee Haw!




May 30th - Now this is a state that knows how to live!! Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. Mountains and deserts blended together. What a place! Watched the sunset from a park lying on a blanket. It was beautiful. I've finally found my home I love it here.

June 14th - Really heating up. Got to 100° today. Not a problem. Live in an air-conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun every day like this. I'm turning into a real sun worshiper.

June 30th - Had the backyard landscaped with western plants today. Lots of cactus and rocks. What a breeze to maintain. No more mowing for me. Another scorcher today, but I love it here.

July 10th - The temperature hasn't been below 100° all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least it's a dry heat. Getting used to it is taking longer than I expected.

July 15th - Fell asleep by the pool. (Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body.) Missed two days of work, what a dumb thing to do. I learned my lesson though: got to respect the old' sun in a climate like this.

July 20th - I missed Tabby (our cat) sneaking into the car when I left this morning. By the time I got out to the hot car for lunch, Tabby had swollen up to the size of a shopping bag and exploded all over $2,000 worth of leather upholstery. I told the kids she ran away. The car now smells like Kibbles and shit. No more pets in this heat!

July 25th - Dry heat, my ass. Hot is hot!! The home air-conditioner is on the fritz and AC repairman charged $200 just to drive by and tell me he needed to order parts.

July 30th - Been sleeping outside by the pool for three nights now. $1,100 in damn house payments and we can't even go inside. Why did I ever come here?

Aug 4th - 115 degrees! Finally got the air-conditioner fixed today. It cost $500 and gets the temperature down to about 90°. Stupid repairman pissed in my pool. I hate this state.

Aug 8th - If another wise ass asks, "Hot enough for you today?” I'm going to tear his throat out. Damn heat. By the time I get to work the radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and I smell like roasted Garfield!!

Aug 10th - The weather report might as well be a damn recording: Hot and Sunny. It's been too hot for two damn months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week. Doesn't it ever rain in this barren damn desert?? Water rationing has been in effect all summer, so $1,700 worth of cactus just dried up and blew into the pool. Even a cactus can't live in this heat.

Aug 14th - Welcome to Hell!!! Temperature got to 123° today. Forgot to crack the window and blew the windshield out of the car. The installer came to fix it and said, "Hot enough for you today?", wife had to spend the $1,100 house payment to bail me out of jail.

Aug 30th - Worst day of the damn summer. I'm not leaving the house. The monsoon rains finally came and all they did is to make it muggier than hell. The car is now floating somewhere in Mexico with its new $500 windshield. That does it, we're moving to a cooler climate for some peace and quiet.

UPDATE: North Texas hit its 22nd day of triple-digit temperatures on August 1. Now, it’s going to get hot.

Tips Dealing With 100 Degree Temperatures

Heights Rocketship Blasts Off

Richardson’s Heights Park playground flies into history (article)

It's been two weeks since the Rocketship came down. I've been meaning to post about it, but it's been too painful.

Intellectually, I understand the dangers the equipment presented; but for both my Son and me the Rocketship, the Planet, the Submarine, the Giraffe, the Radar and even the old Jungle Gym capture the memories of childhood. Now the Rocketship Park is part of a childhood that is no longer Earthbound, but can only be touched in our minds.

I suppose the analogy is appropriate, and probably why the Rocketship Park was so special to me. Rocketships, and the hope they inspire for all of mankind have been an important symbol to me since Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon 39 years ago this month.

There's a fine line between staying grounded in the here and now and looking into the stars for a better tomorrow. But keeping the hopes and dreams of young people alive is one way that I believe that we will reach the stars one day, and by climbing on Rocketships when we are children is just one way to nurture an imagination that doesn't know the boundaries of time and space....yet.

How To Lead Your Life...

You cannot change the cards you are dealt. Just how you play the hand.

Dr. Randy Pausch, a Computer-Science Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, died this morning at age 47 of pancreatic cancer.

Why is this important?

I'm not a computer science major, nor did I ever meet Dr. Pausch personally; but he made a huge impact on me when I watched the following lecture:
(The book is also available)




Dr. Pausch exemplifies & validates the positive attitude that I've aspired to for the last decade. While it is a constant struggle for me to avoid sinking in the morass of negativity, Dr. Pausch inspired me to the core, that the benefits of the struggle are worth the effort.

Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.

Dr. Paush also taught me to have fun while I'm getting experience.

The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough.

My son's recent experience (see previous entry), encourages me that I am achieving some measure of success at inspiring persistence in the face of adversity.

Thank you Dr. Paush for sharing your thoughts on living life and showing us, by example, that attitude is everything.

We Are The Champions...

My Son’s Baseball team won their Little League Championship on Saturday. These boys played the Semi-Final and Championship Games back to back in 100 degree Texas heat and never wavered in their commitment and enthusiasm to achieve their goal (and redeem their loss in the Championship game last year).

While my son was unable to bat and field on Saturday because of his broken foot, he was determined to support the team from the dugout. He proved both to himself and his teammates that you don’t quit in the face of adversity; an important lesson for us all.