Tag: heat

The Burn Begins

It’s January 14, 6:30 in the evening.  At 5 pm a brush fire started 3 miles from our house.  It was 87F this afternoon, with more heat to come, and winds 30-50 mph.  The wind is pushing it in our direction.  There is a 4-6 lane freeway between the fire site and our house, and multiples of houses.  All it takes is a few sparks blown on the wind, and all hell can break loose.

I am not happy.  No rain except a shower in 4 months.  Global warming, of course, does not exist, and all this is “weather”. Here is the twitter link:  https://twitter.com/VCFD+

Hot

Today will hit over 105F (40C) where I live – inland, temperatures are 10 to 20 degrees F hotter. We stay indoors, close the windows and shutters, keeping the house dark and gloomy, only opening the shutters as the sun travels east to west. The air conditioning is put on when the house reaches about 80F. Then, you plop down, to conserve your own energy as well as electric energy – air conditioning is set no lower than 76F to help the grid and hopefully avoid a black out. Everything you can charge gets charged before the heat of the day begins, just to be safe: phone, laptops, tablets. I just wish I could charge myself as all this makes me a blob.

The first year after we moved inland 20 miles from the coast was pleasant in our valley. The next summer was like the weather we are having now – hot, hot, hot. It was hot all that second summer. This summer we have had a few weeks of such heat mixed with cooler periods. I guess I shouldn’t complain. However, that second summer I got what I thought was the flu. I was exhausted, sniffly, and weak for days. It wasn’t the flu. Instead, I was dehydrated despite drinking water and close to heat exhaustion. Flu symptoms and overheating symptoms are very much the same, at least for me.

Enter the coronavirus. So many different symptoms. And the heat is here. What is going on? Yesterday, I was dead tired – again, not my usual feeling. Chills. Flu? Coronavirus? Heat? No fever, drinking Gatorade, and two naps later, I was still tired. This morning I feel more human, but still tired.

It is a strange feeling when you don’t know what is going on. Is it real? Is it a symptom of something serious? Do I have coronavirus, the flu, or am I just in need of more water and Gatorade? Are my allergies the reason for the cough or is it the air conditioning?

Heat makes you crazier than you already are.

Heat & Sloth

 

Today both Josh and I were exhausted.  This hot weather is so draining, and instead of the nights cooling off as they usually do in California, it pervades into sleeping hours as well.  Open windows and fans work most of the time, but today the air conditioning is running full time to keep the house at 75, not 81 or so.  The result is fatigue in a very odd way.  The mind is numb.  The body is numb.  It’s like being a reptile in cold weather – moving requires too much effort.  In a bit, around 7:30 p.m., we will be out for a walk – how hot will it be?  Certainly cooler than earlier, but probably in the mid-80s.  How far we go depends on how hot it is.  Both the dogs and we need some exercise.

Such an uneventful day.  So little accomplished or aimed for other than survival.  No dinner cooked, just scrounging around for whatever can be found.  Passive activities such as watching TV and movies in the middle of the day.  The mind is only now becoming a bit more alert.  No sewing, painting, or anything that required too much, although I did pick up a 6th grade math book for the fun of it . . . that took a bit of effort, let me tell you.

And more heat tomorrow . . . it does beat a hurricane, though.  I am grateful for that.  I still have a home.  And, I know enough about heat exhaustion, having had it many times over the past several summers, that I stay hydrated and cool.  Only the other day a hiker died in the nearby mountains while his or her companions called 911 for help with their own heat exhaustion.  But being passive is so tiring in its own way.

Summer

This has been – and still is – a summer with heat every day.  Luckily, the nights cool off from 100F to 72F, and the humidity is low.  That is the only good news is that life is bearable.  But, with fires burning everywhere in California, the sky is not blue but yellowish, and the light that comes in has a orangish glow.  Ash is dropping out of the sky.

I haven’t been doing too much of anything for the past several weeks for a lot of reasons, but lately I’ve been struck with the urge to look at some of my pictures differently in post:  I don’t care what they “should” look like, I want them to “express” what I want them to look like!  And this heat is the perfect example of expression.

Taken with a Cosina CX-2, panorama of 9 images, stitched together and cropped in PS6 using Agfa Vista 200 film.