Summer Complaints

[rejectomorph]

About four o'clock his afternoon the thermometer displayed by the bank a mile from my house said it was 105 degrees. It was probably exaggerating. I don't think that thermometer has worked right in years. Still it was damnably hot, and there I was going off to Safeway. There's been a fire burning in the mountains for the last couple of weeks, and it has augmented summer's usual haze. The valley remains invisible day after day, and the town seems closed in by a dull translucent dome unadorned by any trace of clouds.

This truncation of the world induces a low-grade claustrophobia, but the consequent anxiety is soon displaced by ennui generated by heat exhaustion. It's consequences today were no surprise. After dragging myself around Safeway and Kmart for a while, I returned home only to fall asleep on the couch. I didn't wake up until nightfall, and the windows thus remained closed long after the outside air had begun to cool off. Now the house will be hotter than it ought to have been all night, and my sluggishness will last longer.

On the bright side, I have new socks and a ream of cheap paper from Kmart. I don't know that they and a few supermarket comestibles were worth going out into that heat, but it's over now. I'm just glad it's night now and I can get a breath of cool air.

Comments

[changeling72.livejournal.com]

What will you use the paper for?

[rejectomorph]

The paper will gradually be covered with scribbled bits of information, some important, some trivial— telephone numbers, addresses, names, lists of various sorts, random facts that seem significant at the time I write them down.

Most of these papers will either be scattered about or become mired in stacks from which I will usually be unable to retrieve what I'm seeking. Others will seem to vanish altogether, though some of these will later reappear, most often when I don't need them.

Only the sheets that get used for grocery lists will go into the recycling bin soon after serving their purpose. A very few sheets might eventually end up bearing letters which will be sent to distant places. Most of the remainder will become clutter.

Periodically I'll gather scattered sheets of scribbles into stacks, and periodically I'll thin out the stacks, rediscovering interesting bits of information in the process. Any sheets lacking content I wish to retain at those times will then be recycled. In a year or so I'll have used up all this paper and will buy another ream.

All this pleasure I shall have secured for the price of $2.99, plus 25 cents for California's tax on retail purchases. A bargain!

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

105 is too darn hot! i hope today is better. (as one claustrophobe to another, i offer solidarity and good wishes.)

[rejectomorph]

There's a good chance that we'll soon be enjoying several days in a row with temperatures in the mere high 80s.

For it to get that cool here in August, San Franciscans usually have to freeze their asses off. In fact their expected high on Monday is 54 degrees. I love when San Francisco has a chilly summer!