We have had record-breaking low temperatures this summer in the Bay Area, but our fall weather has arrived early. It’s 98 (37 C.) in the city this afternoon (which is the hottest 24th of August ever recorded), and since it was 87 yesterday the residual cool that the house stores has been mostly expended.
So the only bearable place in the house is here in the office, which happens to be the coolest room ten months out of the year. No way i’m slaving over a hot stove in the kitchen with its western exposure, which is one reason to sit here learning more about how to add functionality to this website. The other reason to sit in this room during a heat wave is that i get to listen to a sonata for jelly jar lids. See, as the temperature rises above the normal range, the air pressure inside the jars increases, and the lids make that distinctive poink as they pop back up.
When the temperature stabilizes after the sun has gone down, there is silence. But then during the night, as a breeze finally comes in off the Pacific and the house cools back down, my dreams are enhanced as the lids poink back down again.
It’s good to relax and appreciate our small pleasures, like the gentlest “Please Don’t Block My Driveway” admonition i ever saw: