So it has been hot. We have ourselves a heat wave. Records are falling, power is failing and people are slumping. I spent the morning painting the porch. My wife had said she did not want to me to do that, but when the weather is good for painting outside, I’m on it. I primed the porch and walls nearby two days ago. That took about ten hours. Today I was less ambitious. I only painted for four and a half hours. The thing is, it helped with the heat. It was 77 degrees when I started and the thermometer rose the whole time, but gradually. I was in the shade so when I was ready to knock off it felt hot, but no hotter than when I started. I am glad I quit then, however.

I saw 95 degrees as the high temperature here. That is hot enough. The children spent several hours swimming in a pool and I joined them after lunch. That felt good. I could handle living on a lake, no joke. A pool is nice, but a lake is the way to go. No chemicals and more water.

Yesterday the temperature was over 90 as well, but I missed most of that. I spent the day at the office–the air conditioned office. That felt good. People used to just deal with this kind of heat. Granted, it didn’t typically last so long (we will have temperatures in the 80’s until Saturday, then one day of high 70’s, then back to 80’s and hotter again) but they dealt. People used to escape to Vermont to escape the heat of the city, however. Bad strategy these days.

Tomorrow I will paint again. A high of 95 is forecast. I will need to get started early and crank. No dilly dallying. Too bad I need to replace my brushes, which means a trip to the hardware store before I can start. But so be it. It will be hot, but I need to get this painting done. If I wait until it cools down, we will get rain. I would rather choose to do it in the heat than not have a choice to paint at all. And once I clean up, I will go swimming. Maybe even in a lake.