Baby, It's HOT Outside!

Unless you've been living under a rock, I suspect you know that Texas is hitting record temperatures.  And we're in a drought.  It's miserable, to be frank.  The heat is making my pregnant body swell up.  Doogie is no longer being allowed Mail Time each day.  And even our whirly-twirly Ninja Cat is low on energy. 

Common scenes from our house in this heat:

Too... hot. Can't... move.  Must... lie... as if dead. 

I looked out the window this morning and noticed a squirrel attached to an oak tree.  He was upside down with his belly pressed up against the trunk.  He appeared to be sleeping in that position.  Guess that was a cool spot or something. 

I started feeding the birds again.  I gave that up when Calvin got so sick. I needed to cut animal expenses somewhere, and I certainly wasn't going to cut Calvin's care.  The birds have been back at the feeder in force.  I felt sorry for them, though, as any time I drove down the alley, I'd see them playing in whatever tiny puddles of water collected there from people's watering run-off.  So, we bought a bird bath on Friday.  I'm faithfully refilling it every morning.  I finally had success with it yesterday afternoon.

(Please excuse the lack of clarity.  I had to take the photo through a dirty window.  I'd wash my windows, but it's too hot.)

As for me, I'm having to get things accomplished in small spurts.  Run errands in the morning only.  Do some work, then lie on the couch with my (swollen) feet up.  Lather, rinse, repeat. 

We (very expensively) replaced our air conditioning system last summer.  Never have I been so grateful for that expense as I am this year!  I'm generally a cold-natured person, but pregnancy has changed that.  I'm not even sleeping with any covers over me lately.  Our awesome, new, efficient AC system can't even keep up with the heat.  (Record high of 110 yesterday!)  When it was 11pm, and it still couldn't get below 80 degrees (it's set at 79), we just decided to bump the setting up to 80.  No reason to force the system to run all night over a 1-degree difference.  But during the day?  I've got it back to 79 and running non-stop.  Ordinarily, I'd be more energy-conscious, but this summer, in my pregnant and swollen state, I don't even care if our electric bill is $500!  (Okay, I'd probably care a little if it actually got that high, but I'm miserable.)

At least I'm not covered in fur. 

What you can't see is that Doogie is fully stretched out under the ceiling fan, trying to get some relief