It was too hot in Seattle and other news

[mollyringle]

I feel like I should post something. Summer kind of melts my brain, though, especially when it's been as hot as Seattle has been this year. We got virtually none of our beautiful "June gloom," the layer of clouds we usually get that keeps it cool and keeps summer officially away until the 5th of July. Instead, this year, not only did it not rain on the 4th of July (sacrilege! It must rain on the 4th of July in Puget Sound!), it was hot all that week, all of June, and all last weekend. We've had almost no rain at all. The grass is already scorched to stiff, dry brown. Leaves are turning yellow and falling off trees. It's like a lovely September afternoon...but it's July.

For the first time ever in all my lifetime in the Pacific Northwest, I caved and bought an air conditioner. Last weekend when it was 98 degrees out (aaaaarrrrrrrggggghhh), we did a lot of standing in front of it. (When you feel like snickering at our idea of "hot" up here, keep in mind very few of us have any A/C, and in fact our houses are more designed to trap heat in than to let it out. So it quickly got to the mid-80s indoors here with no way to cool off--until we got the A/C, that is. But it only really cools off one room at a time.)

BUT now it's cloudy and mid-60s again. Whew. So perhaps I can perhaps think once more.

Tidbits of good news:

The Seattle Public Library finally carries one of my books!

I showed my kids the 2003 Peter Pan movie, and they liked it. In fact, the younger one has been watching it again for a couple days in a row. I, being a girl, still adore the non-canon kiss they added. Peter spiraling up into the sky afterward, literally glowing and with a face-splitting smile, captures youthful post-kiss feelings so beautifully. Even if he's not supposed to want to grow up. ;)

Latest fermentation experiment: I'm trying homemade lacto-fermented juice. The ginger bug is made and bubbling nicely, and I've just added it to orange juice. Wish the good bugs luck.

Not a lot of big trips going on for us this summer, but we do plan at least to get to mountains and coast at various times.

Writing (starting a new novel). Reading (all kinds of stuff). Learning mindfulness (some days go better than others).

So. Happy summer!

Comments

[avari-maethor.livejournal.com]

Your talk of the heat in the northwest makes me think of the heat wave Europe has been going through, how people over there are having heat strokes because of 85+ degree weather.

I'm from KY, USA myself and from about the end of May to the middle of September it is hotter than hell here, usually. It rained pretty much every day from mid April to mid May and then we didn't get rain again until mid June. June was unseasonably cool (i.e. amazing) and then...someone cranked up the humidity dial. For the past few weeks we've been in the 90s, sticky but still okay...and then they cranked the dial again. It was 98 this past Saturday, the day we went to the zoo, with the heat index feeling like 105-108.

I'd die without our air conditioner, which stays set on 72-74 pretty much all year. I don't mind the heat...it's the humidity that gets me.

Also, LOVE that version of Peter Pan.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Ugh, humidity does make the gross-and-sweaty index even worse! Still, in my book, anything above 90 sucks, whether dry or humid. I lived in "dry heat" country (central California) for three years, and it was miserable. Everything was brown and dusty. How I missed water.

Good thing for beauty like Peter Pan to sustain us! And of course air conditioners.

[avari-maethor.livejournal.com]

I went to Arizona once, the Sedona/Flagstaff area. It was gorgeous but we flew into Phoenix and it was very...dusty and brown.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I love to visit the Southwest occasionally, because it does have its own beauty and it's so very different from here. But I doubt I could live there. Much too dry (and often too hot).

Rain

[(Anonymous)]

The rainclouds are hanging over Scandinavia in case you wonder where they are.
Only one hot and sunny day so far this summer in the north of Sweden.
Blueberry season delayed two weeks.

Hope you'll be singing in the rain again soon.:-)


The Illusionist

Re: Rain

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

I so wish we could swap a few weeks of our sunny heat for your rainy clouds! But yes, blueberry season is a special treat. They're among my absolute favorite fresh fruits. Enjoy!