The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: Big Frank on June 23, 2025, 05:59:56 AM
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The summer solstice occurred on Friday, June 20, 2025, at 10:42 P.M. EDT. A heat wave with dangerously high temperatures settled over the Great Lakes region beginning Saturday, the first whole day of summer. We had record high temperatures Sunday and Sunday night, and will have record highs again Monday and Monday night. Heat islands can make a heat wave feel more intense. These islands happen in cities with lots of pavement and buildings that hold heat and make the urban areas feel even hotter. Temps have felt/will feel like 100-105+ degrees, here in Genesee county and in the Detroit Tri-County Area.
The air conditioner in my bedroom tripped the breaker so many times over the weekend I couldn't keep track of it. Sometimes it ran for as little as 5 minutes before it happened. All of the outlets in all 3 of my bedrooms, and the upstairs hallway are apparently on the same 15-amp circuit. I had the breaker replaced years ago, but the problem is the inadequate wiring in my 100+ year old house, not the breakers. I had to unplug everything except the air conditioner to get it to work most of the time. No alarm clock, no charging my laptop that's setting on top of a dresser, and no fan to help circulate the air. It seems to blow more air without the fan there now. ??? It's been awhile since I cleaned it, but I don't think it's full of dust or anything. The extension cord on the air conditioner was getting hot. When I unplugged it one time, the prongs were hot like a light bulb when I touched them.
My bedroom has 3 windows, one on the south wall, and 2 on the west wall. The farthest north of the 2 front windows, the right side as I'm looking into the room, is almost in the center of the room, instead of both windows being centered on the wall. That's the window the AC is in since it's in the middle of the room, and my bed is in the middle of the opposite wall with the air by my feet. The right window is actually a few inches left of the middle of the room, and I found out I could plug the A/C in on the south wall without using an extension cord, because the cord is on the left side of the unit. So I eliminated 1 source of trouble by plugging it directly into an outlet instead of using a 3' or so cord. It's working a lot better now, but it's only 78 degrees an hour after sunrise. The actual temperature is supposed to be 96 degrees later, and feel like triple digits. I had to unplug the nightlight in the hallway too, but it's never pitch black in the city as long as the streetlights are on. I can see well enough in the dark to navigate by the trickle of light that passes through, or around the edges of, the shades and drapes.
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I’m not a heat freak but as long as I have a little breeze and some shade I’m not totally unhappy. We only had a whole house attic fan in my parents house in middle GA. No air on the bus, no air at school. The main reason I don’t grouse about the electric bill now is it keeps my powder dry and my 3D filament pliable, otherwise I’d go without.
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Mid 90's with high humidity means triple digit heat index here. Breezy today....so it feels like standing in front of an oven when the door is open.
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86 here now which is the high for the day.
Alf,,,I love a whole house attic fan. My doesn't like them but I grew up with one. I liked having that window open and a breeze at night.
I am on the dividing line for the really high temps. I hope they stay east of me.
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It's 11 pm and still 86 degrees, but feels like 88. I was out doing yard work in the 90+ heat today because it needs to be done, extreme heat or not. It will be in the 90s again tomorrow. My A/C worked pretty good until around 11 am when the breaker tripped, and I had to reset it several times. I guess that was when it got really hot out. My carpet upstairs feels as hot as my electric blanket in winter. Not as bad as walking on hot concrete, but too hot to be comfortable.
Yesterday, instead of just deadheading my rose bush, I cut it all down about even with the chain link fence. I guess that's 3' high. I hope I didn't kill it by not waiting until it's hibernating to do all that cutting. It's a tough bunch of bushes, but there are hardly any leaves on what's left of it. The bottom half was in the shade of the top half and had flowers, but not many leaves. It's mostly bare canes standing there. I cut up over half of the stuff and bagged it up. I need to take another bag out and finish it, and do more weeding around it.
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7 AM here and it's 74 and falling...
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7 AM here and it's 74 and falling...
At 0600 it was 76 here, and it was on the rise. We are forecast to reach 95 and humid ... again. However, there is a forecast of thunder boomers, and that is the leading edge of cooling down. I'll take the cooling, but I pray that we don't get nasty with the boomers, like North Dakota and northern Minnesota got hit with.
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The problem with Savannah is that things like swamp coolers and whole house fans are completely inadequate. It's tough to be comfortable when it's 90+ AND 90% humidity. I used to be able to tolerate stuff like this - I worked in an southern Illinois cornfield on an archaeological dig one summer, the saving grace was hittng the Thunderbird bar at the end of the day where they had frosted mugs of draft lined up for us as we walked in.
We tell folks down here that my wife does not do hurricanes or alligators, and I don't do hot and humid. So of course where did God move us? Savannah! BTW, did I mention the 6 species of venomous snakes here???
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Come on up to the land of Hiawatha, Pathfnder. We only have one species of venomous snake and they're mostly around Detroit. They swam over from Ontario, and most people in Michigan never see one their whole life. Well, maybe if you live around Detroit you could find some. The northern 2/3 of the state is mostly woods, with 3 National Forests of nearly a million acres each, surrounded by State Forests. And no Detroit traffic where half the people in the state live.
It's currently only 88 degrees, but it feels like 93. I cut and bagged the rest of the rose bush trimmings and pulled most of the weeds around the bush. I have another lawn and leaf bag full. I just got a Severe Thunderstorm WARNING on my phone. It's until 6:30. It's a good thing I got a couple things done outside already. The A/C in my bedroom is tripping the breaker every 5 minutes or whatever in the daytime, but works at night so I can sleep.
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PATH. I was born in Statesboro, lived through 8th grade in that area. Love Savannah despite the Heat, humidity, ‘skeeters, and snakes. Much of my childhood was spent along the Ogeechee River which enter the Atlantic just below Savannah.
They have some good matches at the 17 South club, btw.
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Got up to 101 here with a heat index of 110, supposed to start cooling off tomorrow but will still be in the 82-89 degree range.It's 83 at 9:53 p.m.
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Dadgummit we got up to 87 today. Right now at 09:30 PM central time the temp is 78 degrees....
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Got up to 101 here with a heat index of 110, supposed to start cooling off tomorrow but will still be in the 82-89 degree range.It's 83 at 9:53 p.m.
Holy cow! It's only 70 now, but I have the A/C running because the house is still warm from yesterday.
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I wasn't lying when I said I was out there working in the 100+ heat index Monday and Tuesday. This is all that's left of the rose bushes. If they survive the rest of the summer, they'll be 6'+ again next spring.
I had 1 daylily bloom today to the right of the rosebush in the front yard. I have 3 so far in the jungle that is the 6' chain-link fence in my back yard that may have been there yesterday without me noticing, but may also have bloomed today. That's one thing about summer that's not a bummer -- all the flowers aren't gone yet.
It's only 78 now, but the back yard wasn't even halfway in the shade by the time I was done mowing. I should have waited until now to start, so when I got to the back yard I could cool off after being in full sun in the front.
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Both sides of our driveway are lined with daylilies. Like yours, ours are orange. I love them myself, although I wish we had some different colors mixed in.
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Day before yesterday I drove over to Sylva, NC and my truck thermometer said 96. Drove back to my beautiful mountain and the temp showed 89--still warm, but we had a bit of breeze to make it feel a little better.
Crusader Rabbit
Western North Carolina
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Both sides of our driveway are lined with daylilies. Like yours, ours are orange. I love them myself, although I wish we had some different colors mixed in.
I used to have some other color lilies. I think they were Stargazer lilies, but it was decades ago and I can't be sure. Like most things that were planted here, they died. It seems to me they were a bit darker than the pics at Wikipedia. Maybe red or purple at the edges where these are white. The orange ones are boring and don't look very pretty to me, but maybe that's because I'm so used to them being there all the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilium_'Stargazer'
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Day before yesterday I drove over to Sylva, NC and my truck thermometer said 96. Drove back to my beautiful mountain and the temp showed 89--still warm, but we had a bit of breeze to make it feel a little better.
Crusader Rabbit
Western North Carolina
Sylva, eh? I've been to Sylva. My little sister lives in Cullowhee.
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Sylva, eh? I've been to Sylva. My little sister lives in Cullowhee.
Guy who sold us this house moved to Cullowhee. Nice area.
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The name ends with "whee" so it sounds like a fun place to be.
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I don't know how you southerners do it. I drove to Florida and stayed most of June. I'm going to melt when I finally move there. How can the air grab onto you like that when you go outside??
It was only in the 90s! Insta drenched as soon as the door opens. Not ashamed to admit I was happy to get back to the 100 degree desert! You guys are tough!
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The whole Southeast is an acquired taste.
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The whole Southeast is an acquired taste.
Yes it is an acquired taste!
A little salty sweat mixed with some dripping A/C drain water.
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Florida is where old people go to die. If I move there, you'll know it's my last days on Earth.
The heat index was 102 here today, maybe 104. I think the actual temperature only got up to 94, but that's still too hot for me. After chilling in my 72 degree house, the heat really hit me when I walked outside around noon. Now they're predicting thunderstorms with 40 mph winds and gusts of 60 mph. It finally rained a little bit. When I looked online earlier, it said it was raining at the airport less than 2 miles away, but wasn't raining here until a couple hours later.
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Florida is where old people go to die. If I move there, you'll know it's my last days on Earth.
Due the number of fatal accidents, especially along US 19, the full saying is, Florida is where old people go to die, and take someone with them.
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We took the camper for a few days to a state park about 90 miles east. Hot humid and off/on rain showers the first three days but the AC was set on 72° and we just relaxed and rambled around the area. One day we went over to the coast on Amelia Island and it was sunny and mild with a nice sea breeze and unusually low humidity kept the sweat away for the six hour beach day.
We got back home just after lunch today and the outdoor crock-pot is steamin'... worse yet, it's gonna be bad Monday 101° actual temp with 112° real-feel heat index. The funnier thing is Tuesday the temp is to be 95° but the heat index goes UP to 114°.... Wednesday is only 91° for the high but the heat index is supposed to be 111°....Twenty degree differential between actual and felt index means it'll feel like trying to breathe through a drinking straw.
It just came a short rain shower....but this time of year in deep south GA it reminds me of a line in the movie Rear Window.....
"You'd think the rain would've cooled things down. All it did was make the heat wet."- Stella
(Thelma Ritter).
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Before breakfast Monday, I spent 5 - 5 1/2 hours weed whacking cracks in the driveway and blowing the dirt off. I killed 8 of my 10 18 volt batteries, and only got from the back door to the end of the driveway. Tuesday I had to pick up some pain meds from Walgreens after the oral surgeon tore my mouth up. Instead of coming straight home, I took a pill then went to the car wash. The Yukon was covered in dirt. Yesterday I weed whacked the 6' chain link fence in the back, and whacked the roses back to where they don't droop down anymore. Today I bagged up the mess and mowed. I still need to trim the grass by the fence and do the rest of the driveway. I'll probably take a couple pics tomorrow. That mess of grass on the right side of the picture is my neighbor's. The crack doesn't run down the middle between my driveway and theirs. They have a friend's non-running car parked their. So far I haven't complained about it, because I have to put up with a lot worse from most of my other neighbors.
P.S. My ATV is chained to my trailer at my friend's cabin up north. And I left my tent set up with nothing in it but my bed lying on its side with the floor liner hanging over it to dry. It was nice not pulling the trailer coming home, and not having stuff piled to the ceiling everywhere except the driver's seat. :D
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…One day we went over to the coast on Amelia Island and it was sunny and mild with a nice sea breeze and unusually low humidity kept the sweat away for the six hour beach day..
Love to go to AI. Of the Atlantic destinations, it’s the best.
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Love to go to AI. Of the Atlantic destinations, it’s the best.
Indeed. I bailed from Daytona and St. Augustine many, many years ago.
I still remember when there were only a couple of old two-level motels and a few places to eat on Amelia... and now it's an east coast "tourist destination"....you see car tags from everywhere. One good thing about staying at Ft. Clinch is we can still get peace and quiet.
It's been our home away from home for so long we know all the good spots to eat and where to avoid. We'll be back there in September for our usual late-summer stay.
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I took a couple pics of the fence in the back yard. There's a jungle full of thorn bushes, vines, and "garbage trees" on the other side. And nothing but rose bushes and daylilies on my side when it's all cleaned up. This is after I used the weed whacker to trim it back yesterday and took pics today. Tomorrow, or later, I'll use a pole saw to cut tree branches off higher up. The shade from them won't even let my grass grow right next to the fence. It sucks having to do all the outdoor work during the hottest part of the year. The good news is, I hardly ever need to leave the house in winter. Most years we don't have enough snow to bother with shoveling it anymore. The back of my neck got sunburned a few times this summer from wearing a baseball cap in the yard instead of a sun hat, and it started peeling this week. The good news is it looks more brown than red, so I have some tan to help protect me next time.
There's nothing growing right behind the driveway where I've been plowing snow since the early '90s, except a few small roses. This is all to the left of the driveway starting about where the left side of the shed lines up. Almost all of my garbage (not trash) goes in the compost bin in the corner, and it never gets full.
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Here's a view off the porch this afternoon. It's 2X zoom, so my yard is only half as tiny as it looks. After an hour of so I couldn't take the heat anymore. It was ~89 but felt hotter, and I felt like I was going to melt. I'll go out with a machete in awhile and start trimming branches off what I cut. I may have it all bagged and bundled for collection on Tuesday, but maybe not. I still have some tree trimming to finish. I tried cutting branches around where they crossed the fence line, but they were flopping around, so I cut them next to the trunk. I haven't seen my neighbors back there in a month and they may have moved away. Not that it matters. I'm going to do whatever I want, even if I have an audience. A couple of the upper branches were about as big as my wrist. I can see a vine in one tree looks as big as my thumb and has woody bark on it. But most are half the diameter of a pencil and I can pull long pieces off by hand.
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I live in one of the hottest cities in the country. This time of year the nationwide record daily high is either us, Palm Springs, or Thermal, California. Sometimes Bullhead City to the north. Or else Vegas. It just depends. Next week it will be in the one teens all week. I've done a total of 34 Summers out here so far. And a total of 38 Winters back in Illinois. (Chicago and suburbs).
I'll take Summers out here 7 days a week, and twice on Sunday. I just can't handle the cold weather in the Midwest. Not to mention the constant rain, sleet, and snow falling. I LOVE the dry weather. My 2015 Jeep, and my 2018 Toyota Camry have yet to be driven on a wet street. The only time they get wet is when they get washed.
I generally use a car duster on them every couple of weeks, and they get washed once a year or so. I don't shoot in the hot weather, and generally take it easy. Any outdoor projects get done at first light in the morning. (Last week I replaced all of my anti siphon sprinkler valves). I was done by 9:00 AM. It's much the same with other things.
I try to do all of my oil changes and automotive maintenance in the Spring and Fall, when the weather is cool to mild. Stuff like grocery shopping, Lowe's and Home Depot, get done early as well. This time of year there is usually a crowd waiting to get in when they open at 6:00 AM..... Usually a bunch of old geezers like myself, with a list of crap to buy to complete some type of project.
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I don't know, but I think I may have discovered the most favorable geographic compromise here in Western North Carolina. Sure, we get a bit of the white stuff in the winter. And we get a few days in the 90s during the summer. But all together, it just ain't too bad. And the seasons provide a different look four times each year.
I lived in Phoenix for awhile, and apart from the heat, the monotonous landscape contributes to its hellish nature. Even the houses are painted to look like adobe. Boring. When you can't walk your dog for fear of the good boy getting blisters on his foot pads, it's just too hot. Yeah, I know it's a dry heat. But so is your oven and I wouldn't want to live there, either.
I spent a good long while in Florida, too. Humidity and Palmetto Bugs don't contribute to a pleasant lifestyle.
FWIW
Crusader Rabbit
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After tomorrow it's s'posed to 'cool' down a tough here....several days of clouds and rain with highs in the low-mid 80's and heat indexes in the 90's.....
:o
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I was going to bag up the rest f that stuff yesterday but it was raining, so I went out today and mostly filled 3 more paper bags. The back yard is all cleared out now, but I see a couple more branches that I'm going to chop off. They're a foot or so into the neighbor's yard, but if no one says anything, I'm going for it.
I don't know what the super-fast growing tree with green branches is, but I can cut way bigger ones with one-hand clippers than regular trees. When we were kids my younger brother called these nuisance trees cat-pee trees because of the odor that comes off the leaves and branches when you cut or break them. Every tree back there is a garbage tree as far as I'm concerned. Some of the "bushes" in the corner have shaggy bark like a type of hickory, but are only an inch or two thick. If they weren't under the canopy of the other garbage they might grow quite large, whatever they are.
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I don't know, but I think I may have discovered the most favorable geographic compromise here in Western North Carolina. Sure, we get a bit of the white stuff in the winter. And we get a few days in the 90s during the summer. But all together, it just ain't too bad. And the seasons provide a different look four times each year.
I lived in Phoenix for awhile, and apart from the heat, the monotonous landscape contributes to its hellish nature. Even the houses are painted to look like adobe. Boring. When you can't walk your dog for fear of the good boy getting blisters on his foot pads, it's just too hot. Yeah, I know it's a dry heat. But so is your oven and I wouldn't want to live there, either.
I spent a good long while in Florida, too. Humidity and Palmetto Bugs don't contribute to a pleasant lifestyle.
FWIW
Crusader Rabbit
I love having all four seasons in the year, and would be bored if every day was the same ol', same ol', even if it was somewhere like Hawaii. I've been in Florida in the winter a couple of times when it was too cold to swim, which seemed to defeat the whole purpose of being there in the first place. It was too cold to swim here. ;D When autumn gets here it's going to be awesome, both figuratively and literally. There's a drive on the west side of the state that's been named as one of the top 10 most scenic drives in the whole country. I think it ranked number 2 the last time I looked. On part of it, the 2-lane highway is like a tunnel of multi-colored hardwood trees that you just can't see anywhere that the seasons don't change. And most places where they do. Spring is almost as nice as autumn, except it tends to be wet a lot of the time. Summer is a bummer and most of my friends are beginning to really hate it. Winter is tolerable, if not enjoyable. It just depends on if you like winter sports like skiing, tubing, snowmobiling, etc., and are willing to drive far enough to find the amount of snow you need to do those things. And it's a lot easier to track a deer that's bleeding on fresh white snow than it is mixed hardwood forests with no snow. A lot of people may not actually pray for snow on November 15th, but they sure hope for it. It doesn't sound like it would happen in Phoenix or Florida. ;)
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Yesterday I got that big mess in the back yard all cleaned up, then got the pole saw out again and made another big mess. This pile looked worse to me, but it really wasn't because if was a lot fewer branches. A couple of big ones made the pile big, but I got most of it trimmed down already. I tossed the wood over the fence for my neighbors to burn, and have mostly leaves and small branches to bag up. I will probably do that while my neighbors on the other side of me have a party. There are going to be a lot of people and it's going to be loud. They didn't have to tell me it's going to be loud. They're black, and if a bunch of their friends and family show up, I know it's going to be loud. I thought that went without saying. :) They invited me over, but I don't have time to party. I have to work, work, work, and when I'm done working outside, get ready to take off again next weekend. I have to unpack so I can repack. There are 4 houses in a row now with their yards cleaned up and mowed, not just mine. Hopefully it catches on with the rest of the bums.