Dog Days of Summer

Mind you the end may be in sight. I go from my apartment directly to my car in the second basement of our building so that it is not until I get out of my car at work that I'm fully aware of what the weather is like. Friday morning when I got out of my car there was a distinct chill in the air for the first time in weeks. This is not to say that it didn't get warm later but the worst of the humidity appears to be over. When I awoke from my nap Friday a stiff breeze was rattling my window screens and blowing dried leaves around. This Saturday morning sees a cool low of 12º C.

This past week I got a practical demonstration of why tropical countries do not sell chocolates or chocolate bars. Milk chocolate starts to melt at temperatures just above 80º F a temperature that has been all too common this summer. I went to my favourite bulk foods store and picked up carob chips for my baking needs. When I got home the chips at the edge of my plastic bag had congealed to sludge rather than chips. Guess I'll have to take more care about my shopping times in future.

On my way home dropped by East Side Marios for dinner Friday as I didn't think I'd muster the energy to make it otherwise. Luckily so as when I made my after nap constitutional to check out the progress the new restaurant was making across the road and go throw out my own junk mail--ironic that considering how much other peoples' I handle at work--I learned that my neighbour of 30 years dropped dead walking her dogs in our parking lot. An intensely private person, Hannelore Krammer began her gradual decline with the death of her husband over 2 decades ago. For the last 8 years her one consolation was the two dogs she acquired when a neighbour abandoned them. As her health made walking more difficult she used to sit and smoke with them on our parking lot curbs and had been derisively referred to as "that homeless lady", in part because of her 'stoop and scoop' bags; a private joke we shared. No one ever claimed life was fair; I have now lost both my long-term neighbours.

In the world outside my narrow local view things remain much the same in Afghanistan and the Middle East. In Africa those not already dying of Aids continue to kill one another off. In Utah after a mini-quake led to the death of three rescuers the attempt to find earlier victims has been called off. Lacking food, water, and even light if any of those men remain alive it must be heart-rending to realize that the digging noises that mark their release have ceased. In space the Shuttle crew face the possibility of a fiery death if the experts on the ground are wrong about the danger posed by ice damage to their heat tiles. In the Far East Earthquakes have damaged a nuclear power station in Japan; in the Caribbean Hurricane Dean roars across the island chains with peak winds of 150 mph and rising. As the price of gasoline rises after dipping to nearly 90¢/L stock markets have hit a downward spiral.

Back here in my own living room iTunes failed to download an interview with Brian Mulroney on CBC's The Hour. Actually, it shows good sense; don't know why I was permitting it to access the Jaw the Walks like a man in the first place--morbid curiosity I guess.

My internal clock woke me up this morning at 2:30 but I managed to wrestle the sheets until 4:00 AM. After browsing and typing here for a while went back to bed and managed to sleep until 7:30. Outside the air is quite cool. I am reminded of the way the air seems to cool off just before school starts again here in the Northern Hemisphere of the Americas. Dropped by a friend's home Friday around 10:30 and was told quiet was required because all three of the resident children were still asleep in bed enjoying the last of their freedom before the drudgery of school starts again. Somehow burning daylight like that--as Jack London wrote--violates my sense of propriety. I don't equate lying in bed with freedom.