Good Thursday morning Gary, Thad, and Paul!
Gary, I hope you're coping with the heat where you are OK. There were no worries with hurricane Erin, it was far enough out to sea that it didn't bother us. But one thing it did do was to change the wind direction to the west, which here is a land breeze, and made the temperatures go up. It was 96 degrees yesterday, no big deal for you, but we still have the humidity.
Paul, I'm sure you're enjoying the fresh fruits. What is ripe over there now, peaches, nectarines, apricots, pears? I expect that the grape crop is coming in right now. They don't grow here, but at this time of year I look forward to seeing the Concord grape crop in the stores, which grow in the Northern states.
Thad, it would be lovely to see those garden pics.
Like I said, it has been hot here. All summer I've been trying to eat foods that don't need a lot of heating to help keep the house cool. I've been having cold sandwiches, or Boca Burgers, which only require a couple of minutes in the microwave, or hot dogs, which require boiling, but it's only like about 5 minutes. For breakfast I'm eating a lot of cold cereal, which I normally don't like to do much. And I'm having to water outdoors a lot. Along with the heat, it has been unusually dry this summer, with the typical rainy season a lot weaker than usual. There are even some fires burning in the Everglades, which is rare at this time of the year, because usually the rains and storms quench them by June. I haven't smelled it yet, but the weather people are even saying we could get some smoke from the fires, depending on wind direction.