Day 199 - when do we get to cool off?

Today is the 3rd day of the 29th week, the 18th day of the 7th month, the 199th day of 2023, and:

• Insurance Nerd Day - these folks must be having a field day watching the insurance companies assessing the risks in California and Florida, and deciding to bail out
• National Caviar Day
• National Sour Candy Day
• Nelson Mandela International Day
• Perfect Family Day - I don't think they exist actually, Norman Rockwell notwithstanding, and the expectation that you will be able to form one can break you into pieces
• World Listening Day

Quote of the day:

"It's a strange world of language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water."

~ Franklin P Jones, American columnist

The number one story across the country is the heat wave [unless you watch Fox News that is].  Records are being broken, not just in the United States, but in Europe and Australia as well.   

Hereabouts the highs haven't been record breaking, but the issue is things aren't cooling down at night, with temps lingering in the 80°s well past 10 PM and humidity levels being very sticky.  That makes it hard to sleep peacefully, and then because nothing seems to cool down much, the buildings and other structures just seem to radiate more and more heat as the sun rises,

Things are hazy too - and that has nothing to do with the humidity and everything to do with the persistent wildfires   And Canada is not the only place that is having an unusually long and severe struggle with wildfires, they are spread across the globe and even include "zombie fires" that are burning below the soil  There is an entire town in Pennsylvania where a fire has been burning for over 50 years, so once a fire goes below, fighting it becomes just about impossible.  As a species, we are definitely pushing the boundaries of livability...

I'll admit that I am feeling a bit better about the heat wave today now that the A/C is working again in the apartment [it's been out since the storms Saturday and wasn't fixed until this afternoon], but that doesn't change my awareness that a vast swath of the population works outside, or doesn't have climate control available to them.  We seem to have passed the tipping point and there's no going back unless we can come up with some technological wizardry sooner rather than later  

Meanwhile, I will stay hydrated and take it easy - maybe even get some sleep tonight!