This was written yesterday evening. I look back deliriously from 4 pm Wednesday enjoying a comparatively frigid 106F
Since getting out bed this morning I have felt confused, threatened. You? Hope not. When Vineyard -- a census designated community 5 miles from Sacramento-- between Wolfe Heights and Sloughhouse wakes its designated census to 100 degrees Fahrenheit then amps it up to 118 degrees by 3p.m. we patriotically head for the wineries. My favorite is Woodbridge Cabernet on the rocks.
Now it's nearly 6 and temperature has dropped only to 115. Short blasts of fire: Arrivals are signaled same as when you open a hot oven door. The wave of heat passes among bar patrons, trying to make our bloodstreams connect.
Suddenly our perceptions are troubled. I have frequented this winery for 50 years --reunions, retirement parties, family get-togethers-- but never encountered such grammatical damage (transposing 2 of 3-letters) in a direct object, AR to RA :
2 well-dressed refreshment-seekers walk into a bra.
I return now to Wednesday and its mere 106F temperature. We live and love and enter the whims of weather, the future. I am a rational man but still,
regarding time, a wandering nincompoop.
YOU?
Geezus...I guess when we take roots, they resist being moved, but damn...I did a geezers tour of the new cath lab up on the hill yesterday, and it was 90f outside, all the fellows, young whippersnappers, were saying it was not bad. Turns out most were from southern states. I tried not to hold that against them. My short talk was received with some applause, a polite bunch.
ReplyDeleteDear Mike, My mother was from Okmulgee, Ok. and until 1967 I spent time among her very polite relatives. They drove me down to Sabinal,Texas where a distant cousin gave me a kiss in the back yard. Next day they dumped me at
Deletea diner in the prairie outside Hondo. Stood there for hours watching tumbleweeds go from west horizon to east. Then a bus came, took me to El Paso for connection to California. True, they were polite as all get out. So I got out and never went back.
holy fuck! you know the world's coming to an end when it's 115 in California and it's 93 in Texas...we're fucked.
ReplyDeleteDear Lady, Our plan here is to keep billions of candles lit while the utility co.s shut off the power for the whole state. That way we can recognize each other while we hunt for stuff. Like most Californians I sleep all day and have no patience with darkness. Sure candles add to the heat. At dawn I find myself among cattle rustlers.and people with other bad habits. That is when I discretely withdraw and sit at checkers in the park.
DeleteThe weather people say that some relief is on the way for you. Hopefully they are right.
ReplyDeleteDear mimmylynn, Weather people say the most encouraging things to what the heat has left of me. I too surely hope they are right.
DeleteThose temperatures are stressful on all living things. I don't know how you managed to go out at all. I'd be sitting in a cool bathtub/pond/kiddie pool/any receptacle to wait it out. I hope you get relief soon!
ReplyDeleteO-Jenny, Stressful temperatures indeed. I went outside because I had to--pails needed filling, irrigation wanted. I lay me down in some shade and 3 kittens cuddled in and licked my fingers with their little scratchy tongues. Sometimes it's simple as that.
DeleteI feel with you, dear Geo.! In Berlin a friend of mine stayed inside (she has a weak heart) although she is utterly devoted to her garden, who started to produce fruits. And in the Netherlands even I became a bit quiet because of the heat. (I surely am no longer - if ever I have been - fit for the tropics).
ReplyDeleteDear Britta, I suspect extremes of weather are Nature's way of telling us something we can't grasp about the Universe: that we can't consistently adjust to its contours, are all contained, unlike Infinity which we express with a lemniscate --an eight, 8, fallen over.I must conclude the Universe knows as little about itself as we do.
DeletePhew, it's not just me. I'm not the only wandering nincompoop. Hope you're now enjoying a reprieve that falls into two-digit weather. Woohoo! Love to you, Geo.
ReplyDeleteDear Lovely Robyn, as a 1940's product of this valley I suffered with 3 digit temps for a long time. Then went to school and learned zoological verbiage: that Diurnal didn't mean having 2 bathrooms. It means agonizing isun all day. I searched for
ReplyDeletecompassionate schedules: found Matutinal, Vespertine, --Nocturnal, soothing words,--unlike Crepuscular, which sounds like it leaves a mucus trail and spreads disease.
I am welcoming fall. After weeks (it seems) of hot HUMID weather, we have finally entered Fall in New England, my favorite, 60 degrees (70 in the sun) and 40's at night. Perfect sleeping weather.
ReplyDeleteMy congratulations and shared joy in welcoming Autumn. It's about midnight here, 62F and 76F in this kitchen. No 40's at night but this will suffice. Must go outside now and look at the Moon
DeleteA wandering nincompoop who stays in one place!
ReplyDeleteBut happily a nincompoop who contacts this one...Delighted to hear from you Annie B.!
ReplyDeleteLove, Geo.