The Heat: Some Reflections
Well, it was just another Sunday here in NorCal: spring cleanin’, fixin’ screens, strugglin’ to finagle a “cross-breeze” from our bedroom through to the living room. Andrew, with a desperate zeal, moved one of our screens (we only have them in a few windows) to a window he thought would provide that cross-breeze; and then we stood in the hot room, unsurprised, really, when the air was just as stagnant as before.
It’s so hot here that yesterday we saw a woman walking down the street in what I can only describe as a wall tapestry wrapped around her body like a towel. It was bizarre. She may also have been barefoot, and perhaps a bit insane—we get a lot of crazies wandering past this apartment for some reason. Then again, if this was my real home, with year upon year—a lifetime—of temperatures like this, I’d probably be crazy too, perhaps walking around wearing my own hippie wrap.
It was a startlingly hot weekend, with temperatures in the 100s. We spent Saturday afternoon in Suisun City, at Beth and Nate’s, where Beth and I saw a brush fire right by the side of the road as we drove home from the movies. Everything is brown, dry, and crisp, including some of the plants on my terrace, in particular a daisy plant that had been beautiful, blooming, and verdant just a month or so ago. Now it looks like it could burst into flames at any second—perhaps a little mini brush fire right here at home.
It’s around 1:30pm here right now, still tolerably cool in this apartment. In another two hours or so, the afternoon sun will begin baking the side of our apartment—literally baking it; the walls will be hot—and the living and dining rooms, as well as my work space, will become so hot as to be unfit for human life. Then I will retreat to the bedroom, which tends to stay a bit cooler. And there I will stay until much, much later in the afternoon, when I will drive in our air-conditioned car to the air-conditioned gym. (Walk to the gym, five minutes away? In this heat? You jest.)
The only bright spot in all this heat and sun: Our local farmer's market is ridiculously wonderful. Every week it's full of new things--blackberries, yellow peaches, a few small eggplants, and lots of summer squash filled the tables yesterday. Just amazing. And super-cheap.
It’s so hot here that yesterday we saw a woman walking down the street in what I can only describe as a wall tapestry wrapped around her body like a towel. It was bizarre. She may also have been barefoot, and perhaps a bit insane—we get a lot of crazies wandering past this apartment for some reason. Then again, if this was my real home, with year upon year—a lifetime—of temperatures like this, I’d probably be crazy too, perhaps walking around wearing my own hippie wrap.
It was a startlingly hot weekend, with temperatures in the 100s. We spent Saturday afternoon in Suisun City, at Beth and Nate’s, where Beth and I saw a brush fire right by the side of the road as we drove home from the movies. Everything is brown, dry, and crisp, including some of the plants on my terrace, in particular a daisy plant that had been beautiful, blooming, and verdant just a month or so ago. Now it looks like it could burst into flames at any second—perhaps a little mini brush fire right here at home.
It’s around 1:30pm here right now, still tolerably cool in this apartment. In another two hours or so, the afternoon sun will begin baking the side of our apartment—literally baking it; the walls will be hot—and the living and dining rooms, as well as my work space, will become so hot as to be unfit for human life. Then I will retreat to the bedroom, which tends to stay a bit cooler. And there I will stay until much, much later in the afternoon, when I will drive in our air-conditioned car to the air-conditioned gym. (Walk to the gym, five minutes away? In this heat? You jest.)
The only bright spot in all this heat and sun: Our local farmer's market is ridiculously wonderful. Every week it's full of new things--blackberries, yellow peaches, a few small eggplants, and lots of summer squash filled the tables yesterday. Just amazing. And super-cheap.
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