Everyone knows Texas needs rain but the other day I was in my backyard and I saw a pigeon in one pecan tree hanging a sign that said, DEHYDRATED EARTH WORMS FOR SALE CHEEP! In the pecan tree adjacent but on the opposite side of our garage was another pigeon with another sign that read, FRESHLY SQUEEZED DEW DROPS! GREAT FOR REHYDRATING EARTH WORMS!! CHEEP CHEEP!!! I have to say in my fifty-nine years of living in the state of Texas I have never known it to be so hot as to see birds so industrious as to start their own busniesses or so desperate as to resort to doing plays on words. It is true I haven't put out seed this year and the signs could be their way of telling me they are willing to work for seed and are truly not slackers but what they don't know it is more the poop on my car than the cost that deters me.

The heat is affecting everything and everyone. The hummingbirds are standing still a lot more often and dogs stand under porches to howl at sirens. Even Patches has stopped racing the mailman path. In cooler weather when he hears the mailman from six or eight houses down he starts a fast and furious race back and forth from one side of the backyard to another but these days he stays inside with a water bowl on one side, the central air blowing and his head resting on a pillow. His evening walks have even been altered; he now requests Harold drive him around the neighborhood to relieve his bladder and makes Harold get out and pick anything up that he may wish to smell. He has a rather unique way of letting Harold know which weeds merit a sniff; he looks out the passenger side window and when he spies something of interest he leaps onto Harold's side of the car and puts his paws on the steering wheel as if he is driving. Ahh, he is sleeping so soundly, I just don't have the heart to wake him up!

I have noticed as we pass the ranches the cows have been standing in the shade a lot. I told Harold the other day I bet they are very unhappy they chose leather for a summer fashion! lol I was talking in my very best fashion runway voice but I was pretending it was a conversation the cows were having about wearing suede and leather in temps in excess of one hundred degrees. Birds, on the other hand, go the lighter fare and the air can get inbetween the layers and yet they are the ones who actually do go outside and eat worms instead of just SAYING they are going to go outside and eat worms!! Yuck, to me that is a punishment every time and will never be breakfast, lunch or dinner. Before I got sick I was an early bird every day but I never got the worm because I never looked for it. Oh, I pretty much knew where it would be but I wanted it to stay where it was and had no interest in getting it. I don't even want gummy worms.

Speaking of gummy worms, I heard they are great for fishing. On the way to Brownwood today I saw catfish heads on a fence and here is my question...is that done so other catfish will see them and go..."Wow!! Hey, Mack, there is George, Ned and Hector up there on that fence! Man, the people who live here must be some kind of amazing, magic beings because they turned those guys into some kind fish sticks!!! We better stay away from them there tasty candy things they dangle in front of us! Yeah, Mack, I know they taste good and make your mouth all pucker up with yummy goodness but take a look at George there...you don't smile with a stick up your fish!"

I guess some things about country life shall always be a mystery to me but drought, heat and summer sizzle I understand. I have to fight the urge to take my chair and go languish in the beauty of the heat and let it turn my skin that golden brown. My freckles strain against the white of my skin and want to pop out like popcorn in a microwave set on high.

I tell Harold rather than complain he should embrace the heat and save money by taking his eggs out to the sidewalk and plopping them right down on the cement. He is always telling me he will eat anything and I keep waiting for him to prove it by using a spatula to scoop up a sidewalk egg along with anything else that happens to be under it and eating it. He won't do that and I will not be buying any worms from the pigeons in my backyard but we will both be hoping rain happens soon.

One more thing I will be doing and that is loving each of you with all my heart whether it rains or not.