You know it's HOT when.... Your central air thermostat is set at 81...and it's refreshing when coming in from the yard. It's still 90 outside at 11pm. The ground is so dry that there are huge cracks in the dirt. When you water your drought-resistant plants and the water runs because the ground is too dry to soak it all up. You have to put a cooler in your trunk just for your frozen/refrigerated items you buy at the grocery store...for the trip home. The birds are flocking to the drip pan under the outdoor faucet for water...when the kids are just 2 feet away splashing in the pool. When Texas summer is like NY winter...you're cooped up inside. So how do we cope with it all? We go to VBS at our church, with the church thermostats set at 73. (There were 424 kids registered for VBS last week!) We play outside starting around 8 am and go in for lunch, then swim and hang out inside (mostly) until dinner time. Many nights, we're swimming in our pool at 8pm to cool off. I'm glad we brought our intex pool with us from New York!!!