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August . . . i.e., “hot and dry”
Yes, indeed, it is the season in Texas to wonder why we don’t live in the mountains. How DID we make it through the hot summers as kids without air conditioning — just window coolers, or fans! Well, the answer of course is the key word . . . “kids.” We didn’t care if it was hot or not, as long as we could go outside and play. And we’d get on our bikes and disappear for hours — all without bottled water, sun screen, or parental worries. Of course, the lack of sun screen protection has caught up with me in the form of skin cancer, but otherwise we made it just fine. Sometimes I wonder if it was as hot back then as it has been the past several years. I think the answer is . . . Yes!

Well, as long as we have air conditioned homes, cars, and businesses, the summer heat is do-able. However, the drought is another matter. Our water well of 28 years has all but dried up. It may be a combination of no rainfall and many more water wells in the area that are draining the aquifer. So, we are now getting bids on trenching a ditch from the house to an LCRA water line at the road in front of our property. The cost to tap into that water line was over $5,000 — ouch!

School started this week in Austin and will start in surrounding towns next week. It’s first grade for our youngest grandchild, 4th for another, and 6th for our oldest. What happened to starting school after Labor Day? And Monday Night Football has already started — wow, are we trying to get rid of the heat and drought by shortening the summer?