Neither a mad dog nor an Englishman

Arkansas has had several weeks of temperatures above 100 degrees

Today the dogs thought me a bit daft when they and I went out into the one-o’clock sun, they being not mad and I being not English, not completely, anyway, since great-great-grandfather-times-a-few Thomas Merriman in 1750 received a one-way ticket to the Colonies, courtesy of HM contracted transporter of convicts. But, there was grass in a flower bed and mulch in bags; one would not hoe itself away, the other seemed reluctant to remove to the bed and make itself evenly distributed around rose bushes and bulbs and over dry dirt.

We have had rain inversely proportioned to 100-degree days; i.e., none, ergo the need to hoe grass and distribute mulch, both of which I should have done days ago, especially hoe the grass, which has luxuriated from daily watering of bulbs and rose bushes.

Priscilla and I planted two rose bushes in the bed I worked today and another in a different bed. She ordered 120 bulbs, which I planted in the two beds. About a dozen have come up in one bed, none in the other. The roses are doing as well as can be expected in the heat.

At last week’s Rotary Club meeting, Priscilla shared a table with an octogenarian, who said, “The weather has never been this hot before.” He insisted: “Never.” He said, “I have lived a long time, and this is the hottest it has ever been.”

Not wishing to dispute with someone of so many ears, Priscilla nodded. Later, at her office, she conducted a little research and discovered that 20th century temperatures in Arkansas averaged around 65 degrees every year, except 1960. That year, the average temperature was 60 degrees. A five-degree increase would give climate change fans the same shock as witnessing someone eating whole eggs fried in butter. A five-degree decrease, though, can go unnoticed.

I am not looking forward to whatever we have the rest of the year to make the temperature average 65.

Today was hot – mid-90s, rather than 100-plus. The grass has been removed from the flower bed. I did not get the mulch distributed. The day actually looks like rain.