Looks like we have a fairly nice week coming up. Well after today it shouldn’t be just oppressively hot. Of course today’s 96° won’t be bad after those 100°+ stuff the past few of days.

I remember back in the early 80s, I bid a wastewater project in Laredo, right down along the Rio Grande River. My old bookkeeper Woody went down with me to look at it. He dumped me out up on the upper end and drove about five miles down the river to a predetermined location where I’d be coming up out of the bottoms.

I headed out at a fairly brisk pace. I was fit and in my thirties back then. I was walking through head high blood weeds that grew along the river. There wasn’t a bit of a breeze. It was stifling. I quickly became tired. There were no cell phone that you carried around with you, so I had no choice but to keep going. I was used to walking so five miles wasn’t much, so it didn’t even cross my mind to bring water along.

I evidently got down to where Woody was waiting. Luckily Woody had thought to stop and get me a jug of water and had it waiting for me when I came up out of there. I didn’t have a dry thread left on me.

It was a 111° on one of the bank clocks as we drove back into town and that was in early May.

We headed back over the the motel where we had spent the night. We had turned in the keys already but they returned them to us so I could get a shower before we hit that 5 hour trip home. I usually drove everywhere Woody and I went, but he drove that day because I was so tuckered out I leaned back a slept most of the way.

I’d hate to think of walking along that river nowadays, for more reasons than just being old and fat and out of shape.