A tale of two heat waves.

First, our state is one experiencing the lovely heat wave that is sweeping across chunks of our great nation.  The temperature hit 96 F today, with a heat index of 106 F.  K- and I decided to go outside to do a little experiment. 

We tried to fry an egg on the sidewalk.  It didn't fry, but the yolk did a hard gel type thing and later I had to scrape and scrub it off of the sidewalk.  I'm sure that neighbors and the mailman will be talking about the crazy people that had the plate, flipper, raw egg and a pitcher of soapy water on the sidewalk for about 4 hours today.  If no one gives them anything to talk about, what will they do?

Secondly, K- is making fine progress with the respiratory virus that she seems to have gotten from me.  Her temperature reached new heights today, but I'm glad to say that after hours of work, we did get it to drop back down nearly three full degrees.  We're now in the higher 100.-, so we'll take that.  She's doing a good job of drinking lots of water.  She hasn't really eaten anything besides 8 little graham crackers, 2-3 oyster crackers, 3 spoonfuls of applesauce and half of a vanilla Zinger.  (When your kid is so hot and you are trying to bribe them with something frozen to help get the temp down, you go for what you've got.)  She slept decently well last night, didn't need a dose of Tylenol until 4 AM and fell right back to sleep.  She's got books on CD from the library, so she was talked back to sleep by Edward Herrmann narrating Geronimo Stilton.  Just to settle the masses, I'll be phoning the doctors office tomorrow to talk to the lovely nurse on staff, but I'm certain that they will agree that she has what I had, it is viral, nothing can be done but push fluids and fever reducers.  She's following my path to a T, even the exact days of the week.  I'm obviously hoping for a shorter duration for her.

Back to the heat wave, despite the 6.81 " of rain reported at a downtown reporting station, being the largest amount of rain our area has ever seen in a 24 hour period, the intense heat has forced me to set the sprinkler up outside to take some stress off the perennials.  Some leaves on the butterfly bushes were turning in a curl today, which led me to believe that a drink would be a good thing.  We're on a rinse and repeat for tomorrow heat wise, so I'll be hitting the beds with a 10 minute drink again.  As for the other plants, they were watered with the bath temperature water that is rolling from the water urn/rain barrel spigot. 

I can report that I saw one, just one, Tiger Swallowtail today.  (Though in my intense tiredness, I believe I referred to it as a Yellow Swallowtail.  What can I say, I'm on day 4 of rather sleepless nights.)  I long to see more, but our season just isn't lending itself to that.  I was so spoiled with the wide varieties we had last year.  I guess that I was wishing for more of the same.  I know, I'll be thrilled with what I get.

My evening will be filled with the beep of the Braun ThermoScan Ear Thermometer, many glasses of water (for K- and as a bladder alarm for me), Tylenol, Advil and late night junk TV. 

Now if you'll pardon me, I must go check the line-up to make certain that everyone has what they need.

Smiles in my day:

-  Fever reducers.

-  My house is cleaned!  Now I'm going to get into the nitty gritty of some areas to do some organizing tomorrow and perhaps Saturday.  It'll help me to prep for the yard sale in August.

-  Allergy meds for me.

Have a great day!

ETA:  (Besides the photos.)  I did phone the doctor's office today, K- does have a respiratory virus running around (surprise, surprise), she doesn't have West Nile (told the nurse that MIL wanted me to ask), give comfort meds, keep fluids up, they don't care if she eats, come in if it gets hairy or let them know if it rolls past Monday.  This, too, will pass.  See, I knew that.  If it would just hurry up and pass!