Dreams

Today, I’m sitting in front of my computer wearing jeans and a sweater, and sipping a cup of piping hot tea. Brrrr.

No, it’s not actually cold; the fan running in the window is providing the only semblance of coolness. I’m pretending that it’s winter. I long for the cool crisp days, cold nights, and the occasional rain shower that means winter where I live.

It’s kind of sad that I’m doing this, as, if you check your calendar, it’s only mid August. It hasn’t even been a very hot summer; note the absence of whiny “it’s hot” blog entries.

No, my problem is, school starts in just a week and change, and my brain wants it to be cool and fall-like. In truth, it won’t be cool here until November at the earliest and January at the latest. Or even at all, like last year. But, wouldn’t it be nice to have turkey dinner amongst the colorful fall foliage, or Christmas with a nip in the air?

Sigh.

Now, where did I put those woolly socks?

Daylight Savings Time

I am so glad that the government is watching out for us, and providing us with an extra hour of daylight. This of course begs the question: just how much will people believe? And yes, I am always amazed by this myself.

Daylight Savings Time is a torture device that is getting more onerous with each passing year, especially since this year it will now be in force for a full eight months. So now we can save so much energy.

Exactly what energy are we saving?

Well, we buy more, we drive more, and we need to turn the lights and heat on in the morning. What energy are we saving?

Well, none of course, we spend more money, and that is the real reason for Daylight “Savings” Time. It should be called Daylight Spending Time, because that’s what the studies indicate; Americans at least, drive more and spend more. So this is a conspiracy to get us to spend more money. Like we don’t spend enough money as it is? We already have the lowest savings rate of any industrialized country, and less than some developing ones. Do we need to spend so much money? Well, that’s apparently all that keeps our economy running: retail therapy.

And one final note: the next time I hear someone crow about how great Daylight Savings Time is by giving us “one extra hour” I think I may slap them. If you want an extra hour, get your lazy bum out of bed earlier.

Because, no matter what delusions of grandeur the government has, it can no more give us an “extra hour” than balance the budget or restore our international credibility.

Well, we had a small spritz of rain last night (which I slept through), and it looks like the rest may miss us. I think that the rain goes to places it is appreciated like the Central Coast, the Pacific Northwest, and Hawaii. San Diegans in general hate the rain, and complain bitterly when it's even forecast.

So, I think, like anyone, the rain only goes where it's welcome.

Rain?

There is rain predicted this weekend, which is an unusual event for us. I really should put some more leather protectorant on my boots, because, since it rarely rains here, I haven’t done it for a while.

But I am afraid to do it.

Because if I am ready for the rain, it won’t come.

I could single-handedly deprive us of rain by water proofing my boots.

Maybe if I run the sprinklers,

wash the car,

and forget my umbrella,

it will cancel out the boots?


Life is so complicated.

Dog Days of Summer

I have often wondered exactly what this expression meant, and from where it came. I did some reading this morning to try to pin it down, but to no avail. Apparently even such a tome as The Oxford Companion to the Year cannot definitively say what or when the Dog Days are. All it can say is that they are hot. Ah, well, I'm glad we cleared that up.

I guess then, we are in the Dog Days of summer. I always think of the Dog Days as late August into September, but most importantly, the hot humid days that just won’t go away. That’s what I mean by Dog Days—"Dogged Days." Like a terrier that just won’t let go of a toy, the atmosphere just won’t let go of the heat. Won’t give in to the cool crispness that it knows is coming, won’t give up the searing sun. The sun blazes stronger at this time, and in the direct sun summer still reigns supreme, but that’s the only place that summer is still winning—in the shade it’s getting cooler, at night it’s getting cooler. The sun fights back with a vengeance; it fights so hard because it knows it’s going to lose.

It will cool, the leaves will turn, the sky will open and it will rain, and the days of Old Sol in his/her glory will have to wait until next summer to come back full force.

My favorite thing about the Dog Days is, they can’t last forever.

I was thinking. The sun is shining. The entire nation is having record temperatures. What do we do when the sun is shining and it's hot? We run our air conditioners. What happens when we run our air conditioners? We strain the power grid. What happens when we strain the power grid? The power goes off. What happens when the power goes off? We can't use the air conditioner, so we're hot. Back to square one.

Now, my thought is, what if we didn't use the grid to power our air conditioners? Since the sun shines any way in the summer, 364 days a year here (okay, that's an exaggeration, 363 days a year), what if we used solar power to run our air conditioners? Every house could have solar panels on the roof to use the sun that normally makes us too hot, to make us cool. That way, running the air conditioner would happen at the same time too much sun was happening, and they would kind of cancel each other out. See what I mean?

Crazy isn't it?

It's 109 degrees. In the shade.

It's too hot to blog.
It's too hot to breathe.
It's too hot to eat.
I had pie a la mode for dinner.
I allowed my child to eat pie a la mode for dinner.
I have a friend who plans on eating only popsicles for the rest of the summer.
It's hot.

Somebody’s Gonna Get Fired

It’s late June, the height of tourist season on the beach in California, prime tourist destination of the country and the world. The dollars are just pouring in. The hotels are full, and just try getting a place to park coastally in the entire state.

Imagine that you're in beautiful downtown La Jolla. People are strolling down the street, they're playing in the Cove, they’re sunning on the beach—or they would be, but it’s raining. Not just a few refreshing sprinkles mid afternoon when you need it anyway--it’s pouring. There’s thunder and lightening. In La Jolla.

Somebody’s gonna get fired.