They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
But there's only one word that would be adequate for this — and it probably wouldn't be appropriate to post it here.
I took this picture from the balcony outside my bedroom in Dallas, Texas, around 4:30 this afternoon. If it isn't clear to you, that black–and–white thing is a person dressed in a full–body cow costume. He/she is holding a sign that promotes the management's "m–o–o–o–o–ve in specials" with one hand and waving at traffic with the other.
This is not new. Someone — perhaps several different someones — has been standing out there for a couple of hours a day most of this year.
At 4:30 this afternoon, the temperature in Dallas was approximately 94° — which really isn't too bad by historical standards. I've been in Dallas in many Julys when the temperature was much higher. If you live in Dallas, you just take it for granted that it's going to be hot here in July. I don't know if climate change exists, but it's going to have to be pretty extreme to change that reality.
Anyway, as I say, it hasn't been quite as hot as it often is, but we've had a lot more rain this summer than usual, too — which is strange because our wettest month tends to be May, but this year May was abnormally dry so things seem to be happening in a kind of reverse order — and that, along with the higher–than–usual lake and river levels in this part of the country, seems to have elevated the humidity quite a bit as well.
Now, don't get me wrong. It is usually humid in north Texas at this time of year, but it is abnormally so this summer.
Consequently, at 4:30 this afternoon, the heat index stood at 102°. And I'm sure the person inside the cow costume was a sweaty mess.
I've been out of work for quite awhile and I've considered things I never thought I would consider, but I have to say that it's hard to imagine being so desperate for money that I would do that.
I don't know how much they're paying that person to stand out there in that costume in the sweltering heat of a Dallas July, but it would have to be a lot.
Especially with the latest forecasts calling for actual temperatures near 100° later this week.
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