Hot and Dry

It has been hot and dry here... really hot and really dry. For example, yesterday the heat index was 116 and the actual temperature was 106 degrees fahrenheit! Our local public radio station was featured on the national NPR news broadcast this evening concerning the long run of high temps. According to that report, when the public pool opened yesterday morning the water temperature was 91 degrees! And a friend who went swimming said the water temperature was 97 degrees when she was there! Cows are passing out from heat stroke. Blacktop roads are buckling. We've had almost 20 days with record high temps so far this year. Many of the records that were broken were set in the early 30's during the dust bowl period.

As far as the drought goes, we're about 20 inches of precipitation below average for the last 12 months. And recently? Normal rain for May/June is 10 inches. We've had less that 2 inches and not a drop in 36 days until today. Burn bans have been issued in nearly every county of our state. Many municipalities even cancelled fireworks displays! Local ponds and wells have dried up. There have been limits on water consumption during certain hours in some cities. And just a few days ago there was a wildfire that burnt 30 acres in a nearby state park.

With the drought and the extreme heat, all the animals were starting to behave weirdly. The squirrels have been thrashing in the lawn, chasing their tales, and draping themselves on various objects in death-like positions. Birds of various kinds were perching in rows on the board fence, holding their wings out, holding their beaks open, and panting. The deer were moving at odd times of the day.

For example, I had a deer ram the side of my vehicle one night despite my best efforts. She stepped into the field of my headlights from the ditch. Thankfully I was on a rare straight stretch of road. I slammed on my breaks and moved into the opposite lane, as there were no cars coming. Nevertheless, she rammed into the passenger side door, making a tremendous thudding noise. I turned at the first chance and drove back to see if I had injured her, but she was gone and there were no signs of blood. 

She had done damage to the passenger side door though. There is a nice vertical dent where the doe's head hit. And there is a big dent where her "shoulder" struck. I bet she had a tremendous headache and was seriously sore the next day! The window still goes up and down though, thankfully. And I'm also grateful she didn't leap out before a blind curve along the previous stretch of that same road where it winds along next to a creek. 

The wasps have seemed to flourish and become aggressive during the drought. The delivery men that brought the trash compactor I mentioned in my last post each got stung. I got stung while watering my plants. And they have positively had it in for my youngest! As I mentioned previously, he got 3 stings on his upper arm a while back when a wasp somehow crawled inside his shirtsleeve as he played in the sandbox. He still bears little bruise-like marks where he was stung. Yesterday, a wasp stung him on the shin as he played on our teeter totter. By the evening his entire lower leg was swollen to twice it's normal size! His leg was hot to the touch and he was walking gingerly and complaining of the pain. 

I did a bit of reading and determined it wasn't panic-worthy. I iced his leg and later tucked him into bed with an ice pack, hoping the swelling would go down. This morning it was still swollen and his foot had started to swell too, causing him to walk on his toes. So I decided that I should give him some anti-histimine. All I had on hand was children's Claritin. I was lucky to have that, as we are not a mecine-taking family. It took some cajoling, but I managed to get him to choke it down. 

This afternoon, the swelling still had not gone down, so I made a visit to the pharmacist and talked things over with her. I purchased some Benadryl and she went over the proper dosing with me. I made sure that the 24 hour acting Claritin that was still in his system would not cause any problems. The Benadryl has had no effect either! The poor kid has been wearing a slipper on that foot (even it was hard to get on) for a day now (even to Mass- where we brought up the gifts at the offertory- and the Children's Museum). So I gave him another dose of the big B after the usual 4 hours- still nothing. He didn't even get the slightest bit sleepy! Ugh. I sure hope the swelling lessens some tomorrow, but supposedly it could be this way for up to seven days.

Thankfully we've had a brief rain and a cooler front is moving through now. The 90's will feel cool compared to our long streak of three digit temps. And hopefully we'll get more rain or the local crops will be complete losses. (The corn and soy beans here are terrible looking. The corn is short, curling, and brown for the bottom two feet. The soybeans are dry and silvery looking... the fields are patchy with bare spots.) Besides, I'd like a lawn that doesn't crunch like straw, and the fact that many trees have lost half their leaves and some are turning color like the fall is sort of freaking me out a bit, seeing as July has just started.