Suddenly I remember why I moved to the Northeast. 

I noticed on a weather report that it was in the mid 80's this morning at 4:00am in Dallas.  OMG!

I remember the summer of 1980.  I worked downtown and rode the bus.  Little did I know that the AC on the buses was only designed to cool them 15 degrees lower than the outside temperature.  The day it was 113, the bus home was packed and like the Black Hole of Calcutta.  The last time I was in Vegas, it was 113, too, and very windy.  The hot wind felt like it was burning your skin.  This summer, our central AC is down -- again -- and we only have 1 room with a window unit.  It was 99 degrees in the un-air-conditioned majority of the house last night.  We opened all the windows and used fans and got it down to a balmy 93.  Hope our refrigerator doesn't burn out before we can get everything cooled off again!  To make matters worse, when we got to work yesterday, vandals had damaged the AC unit over the weekend, and building management was unable to get it fixed and cooled off until late in the day.  I know I'm getting old! 

I remember the summer of '80.  Lived in a tiny house near the old Lochwood Shopping Center.  It had two window air conditioners, one in the kitchen that also cooled the living room, and one in my bedroom which had a habit of freezing up and not cooling anything.  Pretty miserable but, hey, I survived.  Made the mistake of going to Colorado for a week where the high was 85 but dropped into the 30's at night.  I really didn't want to come home, but then I thought about winters up there!  It was sure a lot easier to handle the temperature changes when we were younger.

The summer of 1980 my youngest son had a seizure, 2 weeks after his 2nd birthday, as usual the air conditioner was out.  Had EMT at the house and rushed him to the hospital, had ER doctor and ER nurse accuse my of being an unfit mother, because my son was running a 103 temp. (which was not unusual for my kids), gave him Tylenol which he could not take.  So the rest of the night he was climbing the walls (not really) and would not sleep but 5 minutes at a time.  I will never forget the summer of 1980.  Oh and I permanently have his baby teeth marks in my finger.  The trails and tribulations of mother hood.

Ah, the summer of '80.  We bought this house pre-owned.  A warranty came with it.  Three days after closing, the AC failed.  Had to wait a week to get an "approved" service tech out.  The cat took to sleeping in the shower on the cool tile (relatively speaking.)  New undersized compressor lasted about a year.  Barry's right.  We were younger then.

No, but I went to high school with some. One even went on to become a famous physician and tarot card reader who works out of a van parked by the old Chester Clinic. 

Sad to say, the only famous people named Garrett are listed below.  Only one I ever heard of is funny guy Garrett Morris. Most are athletes.  One invented the traffic signal and gas mask.

• GARRETT MORRIS, Saturday Night Live cast member
• GARRETT ATKINS, baseball player
• GARRETT BURNETT, professional hockey player
• GARRETT CROSS, football player
• GARRETT FORD, football player
• GARRETT HALEY, American Idol Season 7 finalist
• GARRETT HARTLEY, football player
• GARRETT HEDLUND, Actor
• GARRETT JONES, baseball player
• GARRETT MILLS, football player
• GARRETT MOCK, baseball player
• GARRETT MORGAN, Inventor of the gas mask and traffic signal
• GARRETT OLSON, baseball player
• GARRETT REYNOLDS, football player
• GARRETT RIVAS, football player
• GARRETT STEPHENSON, baseball player
• GARRETT WANG, Actor
• GARRETT WEBER-GALE, 2008 Olympic athlete - United States - Swimming
• GARRETT WILLIS, PGA tour golfer
• GARRETT WOLFE, football player

Oh joy!  The first name of the young attacking gunman in Norway is ANDERS....I have some Scandinavian heritage but he is no kin period!!!  

Proposed new slogan for the American People's Party (APP):  "We've got an APP for that!" 

Oh, I think most Americans understand government intervention and Keynesian economics, Kathleen.  They also understand it doesn't work.  Take a look at Washington if you want to see Keynesian economics at work right now..........and failing miserably.  And just so you better understand the statements you make about wishing "the wealthy were paying their fair share", and that we need to "invest in public works, green projects, education (naturally) and anything that will contribute to economic growth", understand this and maybe you'll quit sounding like a Democratic Party pre-programmed message.  70% of all income taxes are paid by the top 10% of wage earners, and 2.7% are paid by the bottom 50% of wage earners.  What should "their fair share" be?  And investing too heavily in those items you mention has not created economic growth...........it has created more debt, for all of us.    

Vote for Lynell or Risk a "Home Visit"

That one person who wishes we would not discuss politics here will never discuss her political position on this guest book....however, I will say that "Swell Lynell" would NEVER cheat on anything!  Where is my button JS????

Lynell - if you were to feel the need in your campaign to promise a chicken in every pot - would you please provide us a good recipe for the dumplings to go with it?

Okay Kathleen, if you sacrificing $300/year of SS benefits would directly aid achieving a balanced budget for the federal government, would you do that?