Summer in Texas

Remember my Secret Garden blog less than a month ago?  If you don't, go back and look at the link!  Our garden was beautiful then, now, no matter whether we pour water on it or not, it is wilting and dying!

Now we are into 100˚F+ weather.  The hard surfaces radiate heat.  When you go outside you feel as though you've been hit by a blast furnace.  And, as I get older, I feel the heat so much more, and, amazingly, my arthritis acts up much worse in the heat than in the cold.

We have an excellent central air conditioner, which works so hard.  It was installed just a couple of years ago, replacing an old one, and it was check in the spring.  Our AC men are great (Choate, if you need AC in Mineral Wells), but our house, even with new insulation, still cannot hold the cool in.  After all this house was built in the 1950s, so it is an old house for old people who were born in the 1940s, We love the house, but the heat is really getting to me!

Thank God from whom all blessings flow for giving us rain this spring so we have water in our lakes.  Lake Palo Pinto, our water supply, is at 96% - it was down to 7% in the spring.  You can check other lake levels in Texas at Water Data for Texas.  And while we are extremely grateful for the water, it's still HOT.

Our daughter, Carolyn, said today, "But, Mom, you grew up here.  You should be used to it!"

I said, "Yes, but it still feels terrible.  Doesn't matter whether I grew up here or not!"

Today we needed to get out three times.  To a birthday party, to a political event, and to the "grocery" store - if you can call Walmart a grocery store!  We've been to one and are now resting between bouts.  I hope it will be slightly cooler by the time we get to Walmart!

So, now you have had the weather report from Mineral Wells, Texas.  Ain't no Secret Garden here, no more!  If it weren't for the dripper and bird feed in the back garden we would have no birds, either!