Hot

The past several days have been so hot, it's unbelievable. On Wednesday, the hottest day, my little city officially hit 101. Now people, that's hot for folks without air conditioning. There were cooling centers all over the place and the baseball stadium set up some of those fans that circulate a cool mist. It has been way hot. There was a picture in the paper of a woman cooking on the dashboard of her car. Fried eggs and cheese quesodillas, which she said tasted good and were done in no time.

It's much too hot for the likes of this cool weather person to ride. It's been darn hot even for Justin even tho he has to ride every day. It's been a string of 2 and 3 fan nights, although last night felt so cool we didn't use any fans. I think it might have gotten into the low 60s, which compared to 101 feels cool indeed.

This morning Ray harnessed up Norman and took him for a short sidecar ride. Norman seemed to enjoy himself quite a bit, sticking his head around the side of the windscreen, letting his tongue flap in the breeze, drooling in the airstream. He even hopped in the sidecar on his own, but tried to hop out too soon when they got home. He landed upside down dangling from the harness and leashes like a bungee jumper, yowling and screeching like he was being beheaded. Ray grabbed him quick, turned him upright and sat him back in the sidecar. He was none the worse for wear so Ray took the harness off and Norman jumped out like nothing bad had just happened. But I bet next time he doesn't volunteer to get out.

We're still trying to figure out how the doggles can work. He has no forehead to speak of and the "bridge" of his nose is so broad. They slide around and he ends up walking around with his eyes shut because the doggle frames are over the middle of his eyes. Fun to watch, not so fun to do.

I wonder what will happen when we offer him another chance for a sidecar ride! Maybe we'll have to hunt him down in the basement under Ray's desk which is Norman's favorite place to hide when it thunders or there are firecrackers. Or when the Evil Sinister Vacuum Cleaner comes trundling out of it's closet ready to fulfill its lifelong desire to suck up a large hairy dog in one vacuumy gulp and fervently hoping to find just such a large hairy dog hanging about the house. And of course we do have a large hairy dog hanging about the house. The appearance of the dog-eating vacuum is cause for great canine panic and instant flight to the Safe Place way under Ray's desk. Where, apparently, there are secret boundaries that an aged Electrolux cannot pass and a good sturdy desk top to keep the thunder and firecrackers at bay.