Going to break 100 today for the second time this year - last day was 105, so when it break 100, it breaks 100.

Yeah, 106F or 107F here in DFW, depending on which station you listen to.

Fortunately the humidity here is relatively low.

Rob, DFW is a HOT place. I grew up there.

I worked construction (framing houses in Carrollton, Grapevine, Little Elm, & Lewisville) during the Summer of 1980. No shade anywhere.

We worked 60-70 hours a week out in it. I made good money but when the economy went bad, I had to find a coaching/teaching job.

Practice fields can get hot but NOTHING like the concrete, asphalt, and traffic haze of Dallas.

Coach-
Back when I was in high school, from 1959-1962, early football practices were usually still in hot weather periods. The coach would give us all salt pills and a water bucket with one ladle. I don't ever remember anyone getting muscle cramps. On very hot days, 3 a days, we would get a salt pill at the start and another one at the end. I never hear of salt pills being used since Gatorade came on the scene. Your thoughts?

Pap

Pap,
I came along a little later 70-74 but we got the same, salt pills and no water.

But by 1980, we started giving kids water. By the 90s we gave them all they wanted and made them drink.

Pickle juice and believe it or not, alka selzter have taken the place of salt pills.

Times are different from our days, Pap. Instead of hauling hay, pushing a lawn mower, or just playing outside all day, kids nowadays stay up late, sleep late, and stay in the AC all day.

They eat different too. Chicken strips and French fries instead of fresh vegetables from the garden.

Coaches have to take care of them these days. The bigger schools have indoor workout facilities. Even at that, we still lose some players every year.

I lived in Carrollton (Denton County) from '97 to about 2010, so I knew it well. It's not a bad location, I had some jobs down in Arlington/Grapevine/Irving area for quite a few years. My first house ('03 to '12) was in Carrollton, built in '73.

It needed a whole lotta work when I bought it. It needed a bit of work when I sold it. The first thing I did was rip out all of the aluminum wiring and replace it with modern copper nomex. Fortunately for me the copper prices were sane in 2003. All-in-all, I came out ahead, though.

Rob,
I worked over there every Summer from 1974-79 and then for a year after I got out of college in 1979. There was a real building BOOM on in those days and there was money to be made.

There were some real “jackleg” carpenters in those days. Some of the crap that they built was unbelievably sorry. It wasn’t just the carpenters either. The plumbers, concrete people, electricians, etc had their own jacklegs.

Our builder was Kenny Marchant (congressman) and I remember the day that he contemplated using aluminum wiring. Being a physics major in college, I explained that the practical, ethical, moral, and liability reasons for NOT using aluminum wiring far outweighed the immediate savings.

I think it was the liability part of the conversation that got his attention, but to my knowledge, he never used aluminum.

A lot of ‘em used aluminum. I just wonder how many of those houses burned down in the years after.

This house had plenty of issues, the builder (name slips me) was known for cutting corners.

A couple other shortcuts:

1) The exterior studs are on 2ft center
2) The sliding door was installed backwards and a custom lock rigged into it so that you could lock it from the inside. It's clear the builder needed "opens to the left" door and only had "opens to the right" doors in inventory.

When I was in the area, there was a Ron Marchant for the local JP. He was the juror for a lawsuit I filed against a landlord in 2002.

You remember the pond at Josey and Frankford? The house is up the hill just East of that pond.

I know exactly where that pond is. Don’t remember Ron. I’m sure he is kin. Kenny is still a U.S. Congressman.

111 for the 2nd day.

102 last night at 8:45