Storm the Field

Just booked a weekend of hunts for South Zone dove opener. Trying something new this year. Dad, brother and I have spent a weekend almost every September since around 2012 or so with an outfitter with multiple fields spread out around San Antonio (mainly Lytle and Cibolo). Almost always had stellar hunts those first 6 or 7 years, with really good customer service and reliable limits. Last 2 trips (2019 and 2021) were mediocre at best. Think the outfitter just got way too popular and started booking too many damn hunters. "Guiding" became downgraded to them finding you an unoccupied spot in the field to set up in and that's about it. Those first few years, they would come by and constantly check in and would move you around if things were slow. Anyways, we found an outfitter with some fields much further south. Gonna be hunting out somewhere between Alice and Kingsville this year. Never dove hunted that area before but looking forward to it. Also praying that it's not still 105 degrees in the afternoons by then.

Yeesh. Finally saw a clip from Ukraine on r/combatfootage that I would describe as "tough to watch." Injured Russian laying flat on his back. Drone hovering over him drops 2 grenades, about 1/2 a second apart. First one lands directly on his junk. As he's reacting, 2nd one lands right on his sternum. Once the smoke clears, the dude is laying there, split wide open from ribcage to taint, like a corpse being autopsied, still seemingly alive. Some hacker needs to take over Russian TV channels and air that on a loop. "Stay the fuck out of Ukraine if you don't want this to happen."

Moar. Consumer Confidence hits its highest level since July 2021 in the latest Conference Board survey. "Current Situation" (160) and "Future Expectations" (88) both improved significantly. Moreover, the % of respondents who agreed that "jobs are hard to come by" dropped back below 10%, nearing an all-time low.

Guitarist from Power Trip (RIP) is putting out some more old school thrash metal with his new band.

Damn, them some big mf'ers. Good work. Decided to take a Monday off and heading out to Sabine Lake with my old man at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning. Current forecast has it being dead calm so that's a plus. Not really feasible to drift along the levy wall when that south wind is blowing.

This shit has gotten real old and we've still got another 2 months to go. Woof. October needs to hurry its ass up.

Holy crap, went on IMDB to check how long it's been. When the new season starts tomorrow, it will have been almost 10 years since the last new Futurama episode. Original run (Seasons 1-5): 1999-2003. The Movies (Season 6): 2008-9. First Revival (Seasons 7-10): 2010-13.

Lulz,

Lulz: And from the Comments: "Like unironically slapping a Thin Blue Line sticker on the General Lee."

Pretty clear that July is gonna suck all the way to the finish line. Went back and read through the 2022 thread and it's darkly funny how identical the posts from mid-July 2022 are to this thread lately. Only thing that gives me any kind of hope for relief was that the posts started to get less apocalyptic in August. Went back and checked the weather records for Houston and, I'll be damned, after like 6 straight weeks of misery, the first Saturday in August was 90/74. It got blazing hot again for a few days after, but by 8/20, it only got above 95 twice the remainder of the year, and we even had a handful of days towards the end of August where the high only made it to the upper 80's. First whiff of a "cool" front last year came on 9/14 (89/66). First extended dose of pleasant weather was a front that lasted about a week from 9/27 to 10/5. Daily highs in the mid 80's and lows in the high 50's.

All 3 indexes are at their highest levels since early 2022 and have made some rather solid gains the past 52 weeks. DJIA +3895 (12.5%). S&P +714 (18.65%). Nasdaq +2915 (25.7%).

Post that started this thread is the Surly equivalent of every "edgy" comedian's stand up special the last few years.

The map shows when average highs for a region peak, historically.

September is a month of contrasts. Pretty common to continue hitting high 90's or low 100's multiple times those first 2 weeks. I'm sure just about everyone can relate to spending Labor Day or the following weekend dove hunting or tailgating and being absolutely drenched in sweat. If this Summer keeps on it like it has, some of y'all probably gonna die at the Rice game this year. But then, usually, by the end of the month, we'll catch at least one perceptible cool front. Historical Average temps for Austin and Houston. 9/1: 95/73 and 93/76. 9/15: 92/70 and 90/73. 9/30: 88/66 and 87/69.

Still 3 weeks to go before we hit "peak summer." Kill me. 2nd week of August is historically when daily high temps start to sloooowly average down for most folks in Texas. But that's only like 1 degree every 10 days. Things don't really pick up much steam until mid to late September, when the average high starts dropping a degree roughly every 4 days.

Caught a doctor on one of the morning news programs earlier talking about Summer SAD. It's apparently quite real, but kind of the opposite of the Winter version. Instead of sleeping in and feeling mopey, people with Summer SAD get irritable and don't sleep well. She talked about how a lot of it is frustration with being stuck inside even though it's sunny outside. You feel like you should be doing something outdoors. Also, social media doesn't help. You're stuck at work and there's a heat index of 110 outside and your feed is just non-stop pictures of people you know on vacation in more hospitable climates. I can understand. I practically had to force myself to head outside and knock out a couple chores and then jump in the pool to cool off yesterday just so I wouldn't feel like I wasted my entire Sunday. But I didn't really want to do those things.

Bingo. It's an artifact of youth. You don't care if it's 100 degrees when you're 12 years old and your only concern for 3 straight months is where you are swimming that day and which friend you're spending the night with. Also, all the songs about how awesome Summer is are written by northerners and Californians. I'd probably think it was pretty great too when it tops out at 86 out on the lake or beach and then it cools down enough in the evening to need a light jacket out by the bonfire. Summer in the South is atonement for the Civil War.

High of 89 at 2:00 pm today, humidity 29%, producing a heat index of....89. Back down to 70 by bed time. High 60's when you wake up tomorrow morning. Thoughts and prayers!

Pictured: BofA, JPM, and Morgan Stanley CIO's out there every morning keeping up their imminent recession calls, trying to conjure up a market correction.

Best consumer sentiment reading in almost 2 years. Significant improvements in both "current conditions" and "future expectations", though near-term inflation expectations increased a bit.

1. Lows in the 60's every morning and evening. 2. Humidity below 40%. "Feels like" temps = actual temps. Doesn't count.

As someone that lives down the street, but far enough away to not have people parking around me, I love having a block of hangout spots just a 10 minute walk away. Big fan of D'Alba but would love to see more dining options in the hood. (Sidenote: somebody's gotta finally shit or get off the pot in regards to Petrol Station). Will be really nice when they give the portion of Wakefield between Alba and Sue Barnett the same treatment as the section between Alba and Golf and install sidewalks. Right now, if I don't want to walk in the street for a quarter mile, I have to take a detour down either Judiway or Fisher.

Hah. I was on a vacation in Dublin in August a few years ago. One day of the trip it was like 80 degrees and sunny, and I swear 90% of the city took off, which means a good half of the country was off work. Parks were literally overflowing with people out sitting on blankets. On a sidenote, an Irish guy told me that you can instantly tell someone is an American tourist, without even talking to them, if they're wearing shorts in public.