I haven't had smoke as an excuse to use the air conditioner for the last couple of days, either— not that I could afford to set the air conditioner low enough to get the house any cooler than it's getting by dawn without it, but at least it could take the afternoon and evening peak down a few degrees. But I've decided I won't use it unless I need to reduce the smoke in the house. It just isn't worth an extra four of five dollars a day on the electric bill to be only marginally less uncomfortable.
I'm a bit surprised that no more oak trees have shed giant limbs. Day after day of high heat such as we've been having tends to weaken them considerably, and it's not uncommon to have more than one limb fall in some part of town or another every day during a hot summer. It might be that the relatively dry winter and spring has deprived the oaks of the ground water they like to suck up on hot days and which increases the weight of their limbs. The oak up the block that lost its limb recently was adjacent to a bright green, heavily irrigated lawn, and that is probably what led to its limb failure.
The heat is still wreaking havoc on my dinner schedule. I can't bring myself to eat anything cooked until the house cools off a bit in the evening, and that takes until midnight some nights and by then I'm usually comatose. It's a good thing I bought a couple of melons last time I went shopping. I'm pretty much living on them, along with some grapes and plums and the occasional peanut butter sandwich. If I had a grill in my back yard I'd barbecue something, though I'd undoubtedly have feral cats swarming around me the entire time. Mmmm, steak with a side of feline-induced guilt. The perfect summer meal.