Record Setting High, Again, No Rain in Sight

Definitely a warm morning, discernible humidity and heat at 7:00, as it went down to only 74 last night so leaving the windows open did little good to cool the house.  The air feels thick with humidity as well, so it's going to be an uncomfortable day and unfortunately, we are having our neighbors, Joe and Betsy Bergen(the red barn like house) for dinner.  Evie has most of it made already, so it should not be too hard; we are having iskender kebab (spicy lamb koftes with pita, tomato sauce, and yogurt), tabbouleh salad, cold eggplant salad, and ice cream with fresh peaches.  Sounds good but not if it's going to be 90 degrees in the shade.  We are going to bring an air conditioner downstairs and try it, to see if it cools the downstairs a bit.  We will have to wait and see.  It could be cooler outside, too, if there is a breeze, which there might be, but it could be a hot breeze, the kind I always remember from camping on the south shore of Crete, the breeze coming from Africa was wilting.

We went to a restaurant last night called Rios, recommended by my dentist of all people, about 30 minutes away in the town of Frewsburg.  A small, non descriptive building on a back road, we were not inspired as we stopped, as only two cars were in the lot.  We went in, two people at the bar, two couples eating.  We sat down at the bar, ordered beers, great ones on tap, and had a good time, talking with the owner, bar tender, and two women, both of whom taught at Jamestown Community College.  We enjoyed talking with them, one was the trainer for the athletic teams, the other I am not sure what she did.  The lure of the bar is they have 41 different burgers, each named for a different country.  I got the South American, a burger with chimichurri sauce, manchego cheese, and red onions.  Evie got the Eiffel Tower, Gruyere, walnuts, and mustard mayo, though she substituted a portabello for the burger.  We also got tumbleweeds, thin, stick like onions rings, really good.  My burger was a bit overdone but I'll come back and Evie loved hers.  They have a special...if you eat  14 different burgers in 80 days, you get a discount and a tee shirt for finishing it. They encourage patrons to take pictures of them wearing the tee shirt when they travel, and he pulled out his photo book, and one of the patrons had the shirt on, saying I ate 14 Burgers in 80 Days at Rios and they were in Istanbul, Turkey.  If it was closer, I would be tempted to stop by once a week and try a different burger, but its too far.  I will go back.  The inside is small, seating 50 at the most, and every square inch of the walls is covered with articles, newspaper clips, beer signs, posters, you name it giving it character.

We brought the air condition down from upstairs, and it's doing a good job of heating the downstairs.  It's 98 outside, 73 in side, quite a difference.  Outside, the heat and humidity is just energy draining, though Evie is cutting the lawn at the moment.  It's not bad outside if you jump in the water, get out, and just drip dry for the next ten or fifteen minutes.  Then it gets unbearable, so you jump in the water and do the same thing, over and over, and it's pretty nice outside.  I will stick inside, reading my book, with the comfort of air conditioning.