Take An Aspirin
Friday. Just like that: Friday. It finally cooled off last night, although it took its time. It's going to be another hotter than hell day today. Yes, yes, I'm a cry baby when you consider all those other really hot desert areas of the world - Sacramento comes to mind - but my experience is here and here it's hotter than hell. Still, time does in fact pass quickly. Fall is on the way. Winter is coming. The temperature will soon decline. At least this global warming business doesn't create hurricanes. A water spout or two, but so far no storms with women's names.
So I went to breakfast this morning at the usual café, had toast and eggs and coffee, back now at the computer with but two or three things to accomplish before the weekend. The same two or three things I had to accomplish last Friday. At least they don't pile up. Something due remains something due, it doesn't change all that much, something I can still handle even with all my delay. This will change. No, really, it will, but it's nice that it doesn't seem to get completely out of hand, get vicious with all my procrastination.
Friday, a weekend coming.
Yes, Friday, a weekend coming. All of it seems on hold with the temperature. I complain, but if I had to put up with this for months I'd find a way to work around it just as everyone would find a way to work around it. Upgrade the fan to an air conditioning unit. Stay inside most of the day and strip naked when I had to go out carrying naught but a sun umbrella and a camera. People make do. I make do. I complain.
Later. I did hop a downtown bus thinking maybe I'd get on BART and go to San Francisco, maybe I'd transfer to the 1R and head for Telegraph Avenue and maybe, well, I'd walk around the downtown and find something for lunch. I stayed downtown, sat at a soup and sandwich shop long enough to eat some turkey chili and returned to the apartment defeated. I say defeated. No San Francisco, no Telegraph Avenue, no long walk along the water throwing stones at the dolphins. Too warm, the head not right, thoughts of “what am I doing out here, dear lord” flitting about my head like leaden butterflies. Stability isn't about dodging butterflies.
I know, it's silly. None of this is a first for Oakland. It's gotten hot in Oakland before. Napa was no better, although after twelve years of living there I learned to expect ten to twelve one hundred degree days in June and that was the sum of it. What's happening in Napa now? My suspicion is I was in my forties and very early fifties in Napa and I'm sixty-five now. How rude. You've heard people talking about these things - not my parents, they were never near the wuss I turned out to be - but boy-howdy there seems to be substance to it. My habit of taking the bus is a further education, older folks (much much older I hope) hobbling aboard. No complaints from them. Well, not from me either, I use this platform for my whining. I mention the sinus-head thing to friends and they nod their heads sagely, take another hit of Guinness and suggest I take an aspirin.
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