Hot, Hot, Hot...

Minnesota is generally a rather temperate climate, although it is humid in the summers. But we don't often have days-on-end in the upper comfort zones without relief. We're in the middle of a heat wave right now and uncomfortable is such a poor description of how we are all feeling. Actually, I could take out my broad brush and paint the entire US with it. We are hot. We are uncomfortable. We are packing the swimming pools and backwoods ponds, we are crowded into venues offering air conditioning such as movie theatres and restaurants. We are turning on the fans and air conditioners in our homes. And we are blowing power out in massive numbers from all of this overuse of electric power in a heat wave.

It's so hot, but at least this is pretty ...

I don't have A/C at home, but our fan has been on in the bedroom just to help us breathe a bit. Sleep is elusive and sticky. Tempers are frayed. Road rage and random shootings are on the increase. And we will still keep our hot temps until later this week. Icky!

Herb Williams made these giant flames sheathed in crayons to demonstrate how heat can cause wildfires. They were designed to melt over several months and were on display from November 2011 through February 2012 in Lubbock, Texas.

On the happy front, however, Le Tour de France is underway and I'm watching (of course) as I do every year. Doing my happy dance - I just love watching the boys fly through the beautiful landscape. We have lots of shifting between the teams, and some riders who were expected to be there, aren't. Johan Brunyeel isn't at the helm for Radio Shack this year, he was pulled off because of investigations into doping. I'm sure that the team will do just fine without him. I'm not much of a Brunyeel fan, in case I'm not clear here :-)

This is the field of riders for the 2012 Le Tour de France. Yeah! I'm happy!

And tonight is the final night of the Olympic qualifying competitions in the US. We get the final night of swimming and probably some track and field. The teams are almost set and the focus will shift to London on the 27th. Since I love sports, I've been glued to the TV lately. But after tonight I'll just be watching Le Tour through the 22nd. So happy....even if I am wilting in the heat.