Can it get any hotter than this?

I know New Englanders gripe and complain as winter marches on and everyone is stuck inside, several days go by without any sunlight, and you’re out of hot chocolate. Well, in Texas summer marches on – endlessly. And we’re stuck inside…unless you get up at 5:30 to run and still break out into an exhausting sweat. Sunlight won’t cease in these cloudless skies. I think we have forgotten what rain looks like, although brown grass is very familiar. And there is no way under the sun we want anything hot – at least water comes right out of the faucet. Right now (or any time), I would trade a month of winter in New Hampshire for a month of summer in Texas for free. In fact, I’d pay for it!

But I guess I can be grateful for one thing: the heat slows things down. I know people who have never been to Texas would think I’m nuts for saying this Southern state is comparable in pace to New York City. But it’s true. If you’re not running down here, better check yourself into a psyche ward. Because if you’re not working you need to be shopping, or eating at one of the million restaurants, or speeding in your boat on the lake. For someone who has trouble relaxing anyhow, it’s easy to get caught up into that mode of life – even if I despise it. But heat does one thing for you: forces you to slow down. For the moment you step outside, your energy disappears. No wonder Hispanics take siestas. I need about ten a day.

So, my life has looked quite odd this past week. For one, work has been slow. Except for an all-out battle with our fax machine and incompetent techs (except the last one who actually knew what he was doing and followed up), my to-do list actually got accomplished. But then I headed home to do nothing. Yes, nothing. No mowers or hated weed-eaters. A few inside chores don’t take much time. I finished an entire mystery in 3 days and am in the midst of another book already. I actually sat down and watched a whole movie in one sitting last night (okay, granted, I was fooling around on my laptop at the same time, but I haven’t even done that for weeks now). Haley and I played a round of Hand and Foot on Wednesday evening, taking a break to take her really odd car rental 2011 HHR (the PT Cruiser wannabe) to Dairy Queen for blizzards. And tonight we’ll both be home as well, lounging on the sofa or playing games. And I actually breathe after work! A miracle…

Also been having a bit of fun with my new smartphone. I know why they call them smart phones. I just wish it sometimes understood that I am smarter than it is and I DON’T want it to do what it just did because it has some odd idea it can read my mind and make my life simpler (when it actually just made it more complicated). Learning for real what I already knew: there are a million apps out there. I think the phone will actually do everything except weed eat (which is exactly what I need it to do…). The GPS is cool. Texting, e-mail, answering questions that come up via the internet. But I’m still getting over the fact that I have a smartphone. Does that mean I’ve finally caught up with the 21^st Century? Probably not. It went out of date the day I bought it. Which means none of us will ever catch up with the 21^st Century, so why try? Which is just as well because it’s way too hot to be catching up with anything…