News2Houston meteorologist Wes Hohenstein said that heat indices reached as high as 122 degrees…….

wow.

useful tip #628

even if a coworker want to discuss - incessantly, all…..day…..long - the annoyingly excruciating details of her sick 2-year-old’s coughs, body temperature, phlegm and temper tantrums, it’s probably not a good idea to ask if she’s sure the kid doesn’t have SARS.

so, updates.

it’s been incredibly hot lately. last weekend, the heat index was 108. i’m currently nursing a sunburn that developed after i sat in the pool reading what should i do with my life?. this is my first houston summer in over 10 years, and i have to say, i’m not looking forward to it. one of my ‘favorite’ texas summer heat stories is how the heat actually warped railroad tracks. here’s an exceprt:

Heat-warped railroad tracks derailed 13 cars of a 112-car freight train about 8 miles north of Fort Worth on Saturday, Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said. Davis blamed it on a “sun kink,” when a sudden change in temperature or extreme heat expands the rail and moves it out of alignment.

you can read the full story here.

which might explain why things in texas are so big. yes, yes, “everything in texas is big.” haha. you’re very funny. but really - malls are huge, strip malls are plentiful and there are very few movie theaters with less than 30 screens. and most importantly, they’re all wonderfully air conditioned. when kids, senior citizens and adults are dropping dead from the summer heat, those seating areas inside barnes and nobles hold more meaning. i guess it’s similar to how during winters in north dakota or minnesota, people are stuck indoors because of the cold.

but it’s really just the summers that are like this. the rest of the year is really nice - late fall is wonderfully crisp, winter is mild, and spring is gorgeous. but those summers.

i also finished reading what should i do with my life? the true story of people who answered the ultimate question. a number of stories were interesting, especially the people who made the most drastic career changes and whether they were happy or not. but those stories were few and far between. what i found distracting, and irritating, was the ego i sensed from the author. he constantly questioned and criticized the people, and not in ways that would help the reader examine a situation or perspective, but rather to prove that he was right. i mean, what purpose is there for the author to describe how he verged on yelling at several of his interviewees for making certain decisions (”I wasn’t yelling, but talking very loudly” was written a few times in the book) and that the result of those “talking loudly” incidents was either the interviewee ended up agreeing with him, or the author being completely annoyed. i think that if i were interviewed by the author, i’d be pretty offended at how he portrayed some of these people (especially the ones who didn’t fit into the author’s mold). the author randomly threw in a few chapters about how he went to stanford, got an MBA, turned down 500K salaries even though he was “extremely talented,” and became a writer. so, this gave him agency to be a little rude to the people agreeing to be in his book. i dunno. i really sensed an ego in the author. i think it would have been a much better book if the author didn’t insert anything about himself at all.

anyways.

i’m now reading veronika decides to die, but paulo coelho. it’s about a woman in slovenia who tries to commit suicide by taking some sleeping pills, then wakes up in a hospital to learn that she only has a week to live.

i’m also looking into buying a house. high stress.

little brothers are really useful. mine in particular ranks pretty high on the usefulness scale. he’s got a car, and doesn’t mind being the one to drive to dinner. he’s pretty insanely smart, so he helps me feel less stoopid. he went from freshman to junior standing after only one semester in his university’s honors program. when he was younger, we suspected he had a photographic memory. he’s my computer/tech gear guide, and was responsible for introducing me to the world of p2p file sharing. he excels at every sport he attempts - he was captain of the varsity lacrosse team - and patiently explains sports games to me. and, he’s got a great sense of humor - so he’s also very entertaining.

of course, if he weren’t any one of these things i’d still love him to death cuz he’s my little brother - though at nearly 21yrs old and over 6 feet tall, he’s not all that “little.” in fact, he’s tall enough to reach those hard-to-reach places and strong enough to carry huge water bottles inside from the backyard. see? useful.

and last night, he again proved his usefulness during a very critical, emergency situation.

we were in the kitchen discussing dinner options when all of a sudden he says, in his usual mellow fasion, “whoa - there’s a wasp.”

of course, this sent me sprinting out of the kitchen, flailing my arms above my head. self-preservation, you see. if you’re not familiar with wasps, they’re like bees on steroids. but, wasps in a hot, humid houston summer are like bees on steroids AND crack. and, they have these huge stingers, which can maim and kill. no, there haven’t been any documented cases of wasps maiming or killing innocent people standing in their kitchens, but i’m sure they could if they wanted to. anyways, as i’m running around the house imagining wasps coming to get me, little brother calmly arms himself with only a thin plastic produce bag and an unsharpened pencil. an unsharpened pencil, folks. and i’m not talking about those plastic grocery bags you get at the store - i’m talking those thin plastic bags you put your tomatoes and cucumbers in. less barrier protection than a condom, i’m telling you.

little bro’s first stragegy was to calmly follow the wasp around the kitchen, using the plastic bag like a butterfly net. hello. my contribution was to yell GET THE RAID and make other loud noises. when that didn’t work, he finally cornered the wasp and knocked it out with the unsharpened pencil weapon. not killed or squished, mind you. he just knocked that murderous insect unconscious. then, he scooped up the dazed wasp using the ridiculously thin plastic bag and started to examine it.

“hey, cool. look at it’s stinger. it’s trying to sting me.” he started walking towards me. the wasp was, by this time, awake, struggling between his fingers, and highly pissed off.

NO THANK YOU.

“no, really. it’s cool. look.”

NO.

shrug. “ok.”

and outside he went to dispose of the wasp.

since little brother had saved the evening, i volunteered to go pick up dinner.