"Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired." - Jules Renard

As is the case anywhere that experiences extreme weather, the talk around here is about the heat. July is the hottest month of the year here with an average high of 108. So today's 113 is quite literally over the top. And we'll be in this range all week.
The local ABC affiliate boasts that they officially have the most accurate forecasters. That would seem to be a pretty fine distinction in a place that has 360 days of sun per year and rainfall less than 7" per year.
And don't let anyone tell you that anything above a temperature of X doesn't make any difference. It does!

Flagellum: (n) from Latin -

1. a whip, often comprised of a handle with multiple leather straps, sometimes with pieces of metal or stone afixed to the end of the straps in order to inflict greater damage.
2. tail-like structures that extend from certain types of cells to provide propulsion.

Self-flagellation: (n) from Latin -

1. Using a whip to beat oneself. Done ritually in some religions, often to extremes.
2. Metaphorically: what preachers do to themselves Sunday afternoons when they think back to the morning's homiletical butchery. This is raised to extreme levels when they have to listen to the digital recording of their misfeasance in order to prepare it for posting on the church website.
   

AAARGH.....

Ole won the door prize at the Sons of Norway banquet last Friday night. A toilet brush.
He took it home and used it, but three days later he went back to toilet paper.
(Garrison Keillor)

I saw an ad on TV for a new Glade plug-in room deodorizer. It's motion sensitive and spits out a shot of its fragrance whenever someone walks by, but not more than once every 30 minutes.
I'm going to develop one that senses rising levels of methane gas.
We'll have to turn off that "no more than once every 30 minutes" part.

For the Christian the question is not, "Why" but, "To what purpose."

OK, back to the whip.