82 F Is The Morning "Low"

 Over 100 F yesterday with minimal cloud cover but as the sun sets clouds build, a sort of heavy overcast, which kills radiation cooling, trapping heat, so that we start the day hot and go on from there. That's been a pattern the last few days and it's nothing if not diabolical. And it's very calm. No breeze to speak of. That does not help. 

Within a very few years, deaths due to heat will outnumber deaths due to gun violence in this country, if that hasn't happened already. In fact more people are now dead due to excessive heat than any other weather related phenomena. Flooding? Nah. Heat alone is killing more people each year. It's a trend, you see. If you don't see, you are truly effing blind. 

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Over 100 F Today

And the rain chances are nil. I see a lot of dead lawns around town. Several nearby cotton fields have not been planted and are full of weeds. It's even getting hard to grow cotton around here. Just a preview of climate catastrophe to come, and human over-use of fossil fuels is the reason. Many climate scientists agree-- it's too late to prevent the worst case, and the changes are taking place faster than predicted. The greenhouse effect is very real, plus, human activity on the current scale generates enormous amounts of waste heat, and that waste heat is being trapped in the atmosphere rather than being radiated away, as it was prior to the industrial revolution. At any rate, people my age won't have to live in the next generation's hell hole.  And I don't feel very guilty because my carbon impact has been minimal in terms of energy use over my life span, and I chose not to breed. Excellent decision, that. 

We might get some local relief after a few more uncomfortably hot days.

Same Old Same Old

 Hot. No relief. No rain. This is a decidedly rough summer. Sooner or later we'll get some of that seasonal change I like so much, but it's a long wait. At least we're starting off at 77 F this morning, rather than 80 F. I'm finding that I'm having a wee bit of trouble staying on top of things, but that might be a consequence of my efforts to withdraw, insulate, isolate, and build walls, keeping human life at bay and well away from me. Hard to do and to some extent things get more complicated rather than less. Non-human life is another story. I can't get enough of that. 

Cloudy This Morning!

 Lots of clouds! But will it rain? No. It did rain a lot north of us, enough to flood parts of Palo Duro Canyon. That's encouraging. I hope that event put some water into Lake Meredith! It was mild enough this morning for me to work outside, creating clear space for paths. It's nice to have a jungle but I don't want to be hacking my way through it with a machete. So I'm making a little nature trail. This is always a work in progress, and work I enjoy. 

Later it is supposed to reach 100 F, and do that again, day after day, with no end in sight, and no rain in sight. Welcome to the world the monkeys made! What an interesting thing it is, to be part of a failed and failing and most likely doomed species. 

Another Look At Sunflowers

 Yes, we look at sunflowers.