Cruel summer

The city is crowded, my friends are away and I'm on my own
It's too hot to handle so I gotta get up and go
--Bananarama, "Cruel Summer"

Get up and go, don't I wish!  During past hot spells I'd take my dolls out despite the heat and take pictures of them reacting to the weather.  Did that twice during Barbie Summer, in fact; posts are here and here.  But I'm not limber enuff for outdoor photography anymore and Mia is stuck on the couch, though that doesn't look like it's bugging her much.

Nothing, repeat, NOTHING bothers Mia.

Yep, it's h-o-t HOT here in Missouri again, and it's the same way for a large chunk of the country.  I've even heard that a couple'a sites in southern Canada are reporting temperatures in the nineties.  For the past two weeks our weather headlines have looked like this.

Here's what our temperatures looked like yesterday afternoon.  94 degrees with a heat index of 109.

Granted, I've seen heat indices that were worse, but it's still pretty miserable outside.  My dogs don't tarry when I take 'em out, and neither do I, for that matter!  The temps have been that way since last Friday, and they're gonna stay that way until at least next Thursday.

Sometimes that forecast shows rain for Thursday and sometimes it doesn't, so we'll see.

Sweeping change of subject now, on Wednesday when I went home to check on the dogs (I do that in the middle of the day) I found this gargantuan egg sac under our wall-mount mailbox.  It's about the size of my thumbnail.

The resulting spiderlings.  Spiders are cold-blooded like reptiles are, so these kids are loving the heat.

Guess what kind of spiders they turned out to be, though?  Y'all might be able to see the tiny hourglasses on their bellies.  Yep, I'm pretty sure that this is what baby black widow spiders look like!  I didn't kill them and I told Mama and Uncle Man-Child to leave them alone, but we'll be keeping a sharp lookout for big ones.  Can y'all imagine how big Mama Spider must've been to lay an egg sac like that???  Pretty wild.

EDIT, 7/25/25:  I saw Mama Spider when I came home from work.  I didn't get a picture because she hid when she saw me coming, but she is indeed a black widow.  She's about the size of a garbanzo bean, very beautiful, and very spry.  I begged Mama and Uncle Man-Child to leave her be, but Uncle Man-Child never does as he's told.  I pray he never sees Mama Spider or she'll probably be toast.  I'd always read though that black widow spiders are shy and prefer to hide from humans, and now I know it's true.

Cheers and spider bites,
RagingMoon1987