Dreams of Summer (Happy New Year)

I confess, in December and January and February, I think of June and July and August an awful lot.

Maybe it's because, back in high school, we had a February break, and on that break, we took a trip to warmer climes a couple of times? Key West one year, Cancun another.

There are times when it's icy and cold and winter seems like it's going to last a million more years. I don't have Seasonal Affective Disorder, but I do get bluesy and irritable in the winter. I do think about green grass and blue skies and fireflies.

Elka gets cold, certainly. She rarely, if ever, seems to mind the summer heat. It can be ninety degrees out, with heat shimmers hanging over the pavement, and she wants me to throw a tennis ball, wants to go for a walk, wants a squeaky toy. She doesn't ask for walks in the winter; she asks for her hoodie. She asks to be under the blanket. 

But, wintry grousing aside, Happy New Year to my readers and bloggy friends. May your toes be warm enough and your houses draft free, and dreams of summer sun-kiss your face until it's again a reality.

Don't Leave Your Dog in the Car!

Perusing my local Police Blotter, as one does, I saw a blog-pertinent entry: "confinement of a companion animal (dog) in a vehicle during extreme temperatures." We had some real scorchers last week (after it stopped raining), so I can imagine this wasn't an isolated incident. I can only hope that the dog was all right.

Dogs Today Magazine, in the UK, has a great site detailing information about how hot a car gets on a warm day, windows open or not. Granted, the car experiment they did records the temperature results in Celsius, not Fahrenheit, but Google is your friend when making temperature conversions. And actually, in their very last picture, you can see that even with all four car windows open, in the sun, the interior reached 50 Celsius, which looks remarkably close to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

According to PetMd, some signs of heat stroke are: panting, rapid heart beat, irregular heart beats, reddened gums and moist tissues of the body, excessive drooling, seizures, and shock. There are more, but those are some apparent ones, and you can see the whole list on that site, if you'd like.

One thing I've noticed about my area is that there is hardly any shade to be found in parking areas.   Really, I rarely have Elka in the car with me anyway, because she is permitted in so few establishments, I figure she's just happier at home.