Elle Rohan

Raineo, oh raineo, wherefore art thou, raineo?

It’s rained maybe twice this year. Houston is dry. Dry, hot, and dying. When you walk outside it’s like entering an oven. And don’t even think that if there’s a breeze you’ll cool off. Next time you’re hot grab a hair dryer and blow it on yourself. Yeah, it’s like that.

Despite the unbearable weather, Cooper still wants his walks. So we set off.

Unfortunately the path we take behind the neighborhood has become a bit sketchy. There are huge cracks in the ground that trip you up. Naturally when I try to steer Coop toward the less cracked parts of the path he veers back and walks over the spots that could eat his leg for breakfast.

We pressed on, though. Cracks be damned.

The path we walk usually has some wildflowers. Well, apparently they’ve given the sun the middle finger because when we rounded the corner we were greeted by an explosion of flowers. Wow.

There’s still pretty in this dry city.

Coop was giddy. He stopped every few feet to pee on the flowers with the happiest dog grin ever plastered on his face. It was a magical place for him.

And it was kinda magical. Sunflowers had exploded the whole way down this dirt road. There were other pretty plants too. Like these things (can’t remember what they’re called):

Until I looked closer…

Yes, I am immature.

Anyway, I took a gazillion pictures of Coop by the flowers. By the end he was exhausted.

We got back to the house and Coop dropped on the cool tile floor. I think he panted for a solid two hours straight. Being a mammal that sweats, I had the luxury of scrapping off a sweaty bra. Fun!

But the point! The point is that it’s not all terrible out there. Yeah, the summer’s brutal and we still have three solid months of heat, but there’s some life out there to enjoy still.