Oh it's so hot!

Wednesday, 1:27 pm

By Kate

Jul

27

2005

It is now 100° outside and the heat index is 112°. Thankfully, the humidity isn’t higher or my house would melt into a puddle. We, on the inside of the house, are coping reasonably well, despite only one window air conditioning unit in an upstairs window. The downstairs temperature hovers around 86° and about 78° upstairs, which isn’t too bad. It’s dry heat, y’know? ;)

I had to go out for a while around noon and it was horrible. It’s so hot and sticky I could hardly breathe. But coming back into the house felt like walking into a refrigerator. That effect lasted for about 10 minutes. But it was nice while it lasted. There is supposed to be a cold front on the way later today. I can’t wait!

Meanwhile, I don’t don’t have to worry too much about my lawn right now. It is crispy brown. It’s a case of feast or famine when trying to grow grass in sand. When we have rain, it turns green. When we go a week without rain it turns crispy. And I’ve long since given up trying to water grass growing in sand. The water gushes through the sand so fast it hardly has a chance to say hi to the grass roots.

On another front....

The phone has been ringing off the hook today. Lots of “Unknown” callers. A few minutes ago I answered the phone and was greeted by someone from Discover Card. This makes the third Discover Card call this week. They really want me to sign up. Each time they’ve called, they’ve sweetened the deal.

Today they are offering a $50,000 line of credit with 0% interest for a year. And I burst out laughing. Truly. “Why,” I asked, “would I want a $50,000 line of credit? I don’t want it. I don’t need it. And if I did use it, you guys would promptly hike my rate to 30.00%. Are you crazy?”

Yes, but, I would also get airline miles and bonus points and, did we mention, 0% interest for a year?

The unfortunate thing is, there are probably a lot of people who will take the offer and get themselves into a lot of trouble. Free money for a year. Wow! And then find their homes foreclosed on when the high interest rate kicks in.

This is irresponsible behavior on the part of lenders. And I can see how people could end up with a tempting card they don’t really want because these callers are so tenacious. I had to hang up on my caller. He simply would not take no for an answer. I can hardly wait to see what kind of a deal they offer me tomorrow or the next day.