Officially: 112 Degrees Unofficially: Pan Fried

I will be happy when this extreme weather gives way to more biologically favorable conditions. Yesterday the repair shop parked my truck in the direct sun with windows closed. The steering wheel was too hot to touch with bare hands and remained that hot all the way home. I laid a towel over the wheel so I could steer. The good news is the forecast for tonight is a cool down: 98 degrees.

An expensive and depressing new grinding noise now emits from under the hood of my dependable little truck. This adds to my general happiness and satisfaction with life, you understand. According to the mechanic, it is the clutch on the air conditioning unit, which I have elected to not have repaired. Free will and lack of loose change factor into that election. My son owes me a large chunk of cash and if he does not pay up soon, I am sending Igor in to threaten his knee caps.

The weather will eventually change. Though these temperatures were last recorded in the 1930's, I have faith the weather will turn benevolent again - and far sooner than ten years hence. That is the trouble with faith. When my brain chemistry is balanced, faith is easy and optimism cheap. When my brain chemistry is running on empty, faith must be maintained from memory, and optimism is like the belief in Santa Claus - a brief great happiness followed by a lifetime of residual disappointment and depression.

The reality of building my new home is a fading dream for this year. The stakes with the day-glo flags that decorate the high ground, once visible from a half mile away, the seeds of my new house, are now lost in the tall prairie grasses. All the things that had to be favorably aligned - so promising earlier this year - have been systematically stressed and drained despite my best efforts. The hell with it. It is too late in life to get that far in debt anyway.

This too shall pass. I have been far more disgruntled with life than I am right now. This is a temporary rough patch. I know exactly how to deal with rough patches: lay low and eat chocolate. When my chocolate no longer melts immediately, it will be easier to lay low.