A Refreshing Salad

   The other night it was too hot to cook, so I made a nice fresh salad.  I bought lettuce at the store, but the tomatoes, peppers (I used Anaheim peppers), onion, and garlic were all locally-grown and came from the Farmers Market.  I love tomatoes that don't taste like cardboard!  Same for the other produce!
   The peppers had a little kick to them, but when combined with the Italian dressing (I was too lazy to mix olive oil, vinegar, and spices that night), were even more awesome.
   I might do the same thing tonight.  If I do, though, I might mix my own dressing.  On the other hand, I may chop up everything but the lettuce and have a nice fresh salsa.  Mmmmmm....!

August Usually Gets Hotter...

...and I'm not looking forward to that trend.
   Maybe, instead of this being the month where Mother Nature turns up the heat, she'll decide to cool things down a bit.  From the temperature right now though (it's 110 as I write this), I think we're in for another hot and dry month.
   Soon enough, however, Autumn will arrive and things will cool down a bit.  As with most things, we just have to be patient.

Tar Bubbles

   The heat this summer reminded me of hot summer days when I was a kid.  After breakfast, we were sent outside and couldn't come back in until lunchtime.  We'd ride our bikes around our block, neighboring blocks, and sometimes several blocks away into the unknown - neighborhoods where the dogs didn't know us and would chase us as we rode past at breakneck speed.
   Then we'd head back to our neighborhood and find other things to do, maybe having water pistol fights, running through neighbors' sprinklers, and getting chased out of the yards of the older people, scattering in different directions.  Sometimes we'd play catch - something I could do all day long, given the chance.
   But on really hot days, we'd pop the bubbles in the tar in the street.  On our street, we didn't really have potholes, because cracks got filled with tar before they got larger and became holes.  And on warm days, the tar would soften, then bubbles would form as it got hotter.  We'd pop the bubbles with our toes.  And sometimes, if the tar was fresh, I remember getting a little of it, working it in my fingers to get little bits of grit out, and then chewing on it.
   Bad idea?  Probably.  But it was something to do on a hot summer day.

Just When I Thought it Couldn't Get Any Hotter...

   Hot, hot, hot!  I don't recall July being this hot this early.  I know we've had some hot summers (the hottest officially was in 1936 - well before I was born), but jeepers!  The first picture below is from when we had some clouds for a little bit today.  The bottom picture is from half an hour later, when the sun was back out.  Good thing the wind was blowing, so it didn't feel unbearable when sitting still.

   I don't know what the official high temperature will be for today here in Stillwater, but at my house it was just too darn hot.

It's Hot so We Built an Air Conditioner

   With several days of 100+ temperatures so far, and with summer usually getting hotter in July and August, getting into the car to go somewhere is uncomfortable for the first several minutes until the air conditioner cools things down to something resembling a bearable temperature.  Today, we created an air conditioner out of a Styrofoam cooler, a battery-powered fan, and frozen ice packs.
   I had read about this here: Lifehacker AC DIY and decided it was time to give it a shot.  We already had some Styrofoam coolers around the house because we've had things shipped to us that needed to stay cold, which solved the problem of finding a suitable container.  Also, we have the reusable ice packs that came with the coolers, although for test purposes we used frozen peas.  I'm the only one who likes peas, and the main reason we keep frozen peas on hand is because they make nice moldable ice packs for injuries (I have kids, plus I'm a guy - injuries are pretty much unavoidable).  We have some plug-in-to-wall fans, too, but I wanted this to be portable, so I bought a battery-powered fan and some batteries.
   So for less than $15, I was ready to create.  With my trusty pocket knife, and humming the theme song to "MacGyver," I cut a hole in the lid of the ice chest just big enough for the front of the fan to fit in, facing downward (i.e., inside).  Another hole in the side of the chest, towards the top, provided the outlet.
   I pulled two packets of frozen peas out of the freezer, set them in the bottom of the chest, put the lid on, sat the fan on top and switched the fan on to blow down onto the peas.  The resulting cold air bounced back up and came out the outlet hole.  Success!
   I have a plastic bottle of water in the freezer now, in addition to the reusable ice packs, so we'll have plenty of frozen things to use when we need to cool down the interior of the car a bit in the sweltering summer sun.

Have a Wonderful Independence Day Weekend!

  This weekend looks like it will be hotter than a firecracker in these parts.  We've had some hot summers before, but I don't remember when it has been this hot this soon and for so many days.  I hope you find a place to stay cool.  And if you are out and about and it's hot wherever you are, please remember to drink plenty of water.  Even if I don't know you personally, you are important to me.  Why?  Because you cared enough to read this, for which I thank you.
Stay safe!