September 2 ( 3.3 miles )

Just when you think summer's passed us by, its long tortuous days have passed on down south of the equator, we get another scorcher. I might not notice this normally, as the rooms as I normally inhabit are blessed with central a/c, a wall unit, or, perhaps if I'm lucky, a man waving a large fan woven together from banana leaves.

But today there was no a/c and no servant waving banana leaves... just me and the scorching sun and my dog Townes, all treading the same bit of earth for a mind-numbing thirty or so minutes.

Today we ran down in the Barton Creek greenbelt back behind my house. My route is generally the same: side street down, wind up and down the rocky exposed ledges of the Balcones Escarpment, down under the 100-foot cliffs, past large stand of Ash Juniper and Lacey Oak and Chinquapin Oak and Live Oak and Sycamore. On down to the dry creek bed, up the empty rocky creek, up a few miles, cut up just near Campbell's Hole (now just a hole, no water inside), back up through the church parking lot and back home.

Had to stop for long stretches because I swear Townes' tongue was dragging on the ground. We stopped at the church and I turned on their hose but the water came out steaming and scalding and probably would not provide much relief from the heat, so I turned it off. Not after waiting some thirty or so seconds, waiting for the water to cool down, but it never happened.

Townes is now passed out in the corner, tongue back in his mouth but exhausted like I have not seen in quite some time. I anxiously await summer's departure.