Glad you're okay, WildWeazel. I can't imagine what 45 inches of rain must be like. I've heard the amount of rainfall over eastern Texas is the equivalent of 2 feet of rain spread evenly across the entire state of West Virginia, or 1/10th of all the water in Lake Erie. That's just an incredible amount.
And while 106 is pretty hot, I have experienced weather warmer than that in Kansas. It hit 108 when I was there in July of 2012. Not too many people were out. I only went out in it when going between work, barbecue joints, and my hotel. Thankfully all three had air conditioning. That's what would really make it rough, those temperatures with no air conditioning. I'm glad I didn't experience that a hundred years ago.
It's actually been very nice lately in Ohio, a little cooler than is typical for August - and since August is usually a little too hot for comfort, that's a good thing. Our global-warming-induced changes have largely been in winter lately - last winter it hardly snowed, and the fruit trees blossomed in February, a couple months earlier than usual. It's not that rare to get a couple days in the 60s in January or February, but usually it's only a day or two and then back to cold. We had entire weeks hitting 70 this winter. And even more amazingly, we never got enough of a frost after that to freeze out the fruit trees. One of the largest local farmers said that in February he would have sold his entire crop for $100 because it was so unlikely it wouldn't freeze out, but it wound up being a bumper year.
I remember the Rocket Cat. One of my favorite units and one of the most unique.
Ask somebody what will be used as the medium of exchange after the end of the world as we know it. If they say gold coins then bar the garden door. There's probably more to how gunpowder tea got its name than just color and consistency.
