Irremediable Horridness: A Sustained Whine

I think I'm done for the summer.

It's vile outside. Unforgivably, misery-inducingly, brutally vile. It was 99F today.
And because we actually got a quarter of an inch or so of rain a couple of days ago, you have to do the breast stroke just to clammily press your way through the dense humidity in the air. It's just too much for the 13th of June. By August, sure. But in June? UNFAIR. The record high for Elgin (on wunderground) for today is 100--we're a mere 1 degree below the historical high. The average is a blissfully crisp 87F. So we're 12 degrees above average. WHY GOD WHY??? After the horrors of last summer, the weather gods owe us a little moderation. Is this global warming? Because I hate it.

Heat this intense is just ghastly. Your brain misfires. Your sentences come out all jumbled. You and your significant other have to brainstorm for five minutes to figure out how to navigate your own home town. And, whew, brother, do you smell ripe.

So we may not see a lot of progress outdoors for a good long while. Matt, who is much doughtier and more valiant than I, is going to upgrade our irrigation system in the shade garden this week. But me, I fold. I'm out. I have a handful of plants that we (ridiculously) bought today at a half-price sale at the local Eden Nursery on FM95 that will need to be planted, and some spaghetti tubing to attach to our existing irrigation system, and then I will prostrate myself on the sofa with my beloved internet and a stack of books for the next 3 months: blinds closed, lights off, and an ice pack on my head, compulsively downing whisky sours to blunt the horror.

New plants:
purple skullcap--very nice
fernleaf lavendar
lemongrass
red yarrow
snakeweed
Russian sage

If any of this lives, it'll be a miracle.

I feel like this.
Actually, joking aside, these are some pretty frickin awesome picture of the Namib desert: http://www.phototravels.net/namibia/namib-desert-trees.html I just wish I didn't live there. As Aida said after a particularly trying day and prior to being entombed alive, "Un deserto è la mia vita." I know exactly how she feels.