Happy Australia Day.
40 degree heat. Not sure what that is in American, but to use the local vernacular, it's bloody hot.
'Stralia, 'Stralia, 'Stralia!
Shouldn't that be 'Straya, 'Straya, 'Straya?
Today was the day after 'Straya Day, and over my way, it was 45 degrees C (i.e. 113 F). Even worse, I went to the office ... and wilted on the way home. It was very hot and dry, but I was still sweating like anything and felt my heart working harder.
Somehow I made it through the 15-minute walk home, shut the door, stripped off, had a cold shower and a rest, and finally felt alive again. I'm not going out in heat like that again, no sir.

Still, I ought to count my blessings -- at least it wasn't humid too.
But I'm not complaining. Over in the north-west towns of Walpeup and Hopetoun (in my state of Victoria), they recorded 48.9 degrees (i.e. just over 120 F). This is a statewide record temperature, eclipsing the 48.8 degrees the same towns recorded back in 2009, as part of the
Black Saturday Bushfires. This notorious event burned over 450,000 hectares across the state, destroyed over 3,500 houses and killed 173 people.
Let us hope we never see the like again.