It's the dog days of summer here, and that's a true statement. We're creeping up on the 'unnert mark; whether we make it there or not today is probably irrelevant, given the forecast for the rest of the week. Everything to this point has been the warmup, time for the main event.

One of the odd parts of the way the sunlight passes over, I think. Once you know about the summer solstice, it's natural, to me at least, to wonder how it can keep getting hotter. The days have been getting shorter, after all. Or, at least, they're supposed to. Yes, I understand the hangover effect that drives it, but that's an intellectual understanding, I'm afraid.

When contemplating the high heat, high humidity, all hot weather ahead o'er the next few weeks, you'll forgive me if I occasionally hope for a little magic; well, ok, maybe a little rain would do.

But if there's anything more maddening than the heat, it's the maddness of asking for rain. Down here where, if the Gulf relents for a second, we go from zero to more than we can handle in about five minutes.

In other words, it's more time to just shut up and soldier on. And make sure the dogs have plenty of water and don't spend more time outside at this time of the day than they really need to.