Still frying in Texas.

Students here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area go back to school on Monday. This seems peculiar to me because we haven’t seen or heard any children whatsoever in our neighborhood since school ended back in June. Not a single bicycle, skateboard or wagon, nobody shooting hoops or walking a dog … NOTHING. City parks look like ghost towns. My guess is, it’s the oppressive triple-digit heat and everybody’s inside playing video games or inventing new ways to torment their enemies on Facebook.

There’s some sad weather news tonight. Tropical storm Harvey is pooping out over Belize, and tropical storm Irene is almost a hurricane in the Caribbean but it’s heading in the wrong direction toward Florida, damn it, and NOT the Gulf of Mexico. WE NEED A HURRICANE IN SOUTH TEXAS, which is the only kind of weather system that will break our three-month drought and heat wave. The temperature today was 107° and Weather.com warned everybody not to leave the house. Sam and I had no problem with that. We took a nap, watched a couple of good movies and ordered dinner from China City.

Speaking of movies ... I snagged an amazing bargain tonight on Amazon.com. I ordered Gosford Park on DVD for $1 plus $2.98 shipping. If you’ve never seen this excellent murder mystery/comedy/drama you’re in for a real treat. Gosford Park has a terrific cast, a brilliant screenplay and was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 2002 — including best picture.

Incidentally, Gosford Park earns the Howdygram’s highest recommendation because unlike most Brit movies you can actually understand what everybody’s saying. The cast includes Helen Mirren, Kristen Scott Thomas and Maggie Smith. Bob Balaban is the token American.

Time for lemonade, pretzels and a movie with Sam. Life is good.