June 10, 2008
god said "hot!"
6/10/08
I'm going back to Cali tomorrow, and just in time: the weather here in New York has been UNBELIEVABLY BRUTAL. Maybe my blood has thickened since I lived in North Carolina, but I just can't take the kind of heat/humidity we've had over the last five days. It's bone-sapping, life-draining, crotch-rotting misery.
I haven't made it easy on myself. I had three days to finish up all the duties at the farm before the renters came, and it was so hot that I kept postponing everything until the last day... and thus I was forced to blow a gasket. I finished the new deck on the side of the barn, made an awning for our chopped wood to season for winter burning, and even tilled/mulched/planted pumpkins for the fall, all in 98-degree heat:
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Back in the city today, I stopped by the Home Despot in Queens, where the hordes had descended on the air conditioners. Everyone looked like zombies, clawing at the first AC units they could find, their eyes sunken in boiling anguish.
Of course, there's always one bright spot to insane heat – that's right, gawking at other people! It was so hot that men who have not worn shorts in twenty years were actually forced to put them on, which made for some awesome short/socks/shoes combinations:
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I'm not being an asshole, I'm showing respect. Actually, I can't wait to hike my pants up to my ribcage, don sock suspenders and tell the world to eat me. I will have considered this life a success.
Posted by Ian Williams at June 10, 2008 10:47 PMThat guy would have looked right at home at UNC in the 80s, with his untucked shirt, "shant" length shorts and the (then) de rigeur backpack on only one shoulder. The socks add a nice hipster ironic touch, no?
As for the heat, didn't we pick a great time to head south? Here in NC, it's going to be less miserably hot (can't bring myself to say cooler). Highs only around 90. Iced tea, anyone?
Hard to believe it is hotter in Hillsdale, NY than in Wichita, KS. There is also much less humidity out here than back east. I wouldn't confuse the weather in Wichita, with say, San Diego, but in the summer the evenings are usually temperate, not too humid and breezy.
I'd trade heat for a little less WATER OVER THE SPILLWAY OMG SECOND 100 YEAR FLOOD IN 15 YEARS.
Iowa City running out of ways into town from the north. Once Highway 6 floods in Coralville the only way in and out to the north will be highway one.
Over lunch, they had footage of Cedar Falls, where the manhole covers are popping off and water is swamping the streets -- not from the river rising, but because the storm drains can't drain into the river any more.
Hey, I just saw a photo of that spillway on aol news. Good luck, Kent!
I think that guy looks pretty cool in that backpack and untucked shirt, especially for an old dude.
yo. i can't wait to be bed ridden in some whack old folks home yearning for tomorrows nurse bath. word.