So today's the day of that meeting between an easily manipulated, not very intelligent narcissist and a highly manipulative, completely unscrupulous former KGB officer. Apparently, first it's just the two of them one to one, probably most likely sorting out a deal involving minerals and rare earth and such like, all for the filling of coffers no doubt.
The heat has returned in full force. With good timing and attention we manage to keep the house cool, it's what I learned as a child in Franconia where summers are hot hot hot but I still have to explain methods to the man who grew up in Ireland at a time when summers would last a day or two. Last night we briefly debated moving the beds down into the basement but I was just too tired for it and slept in the living room on the guest sofa bed and when it had cooled down to 25 C outside at around 2 am, I opened up every window and the patio door and let the lovely night breeze blow through the rooms.
This is the coolest summer of our coming life, so we are told.
The pears are ripe already, a month early.
That's great that you got the house cooler for a comfortable day. Houses once were designed for the environments in which they were situated...there's a wonderful style in the south with porches all around and big windows that opened both from the top and bottom. Not many of them left, those houses. Everything is now glassed in and I admit to enjoying the air conditioning. But I didn't have it, even in my live-in van, in Florida until the 90s. I admit hearing this is the coolest summer for the future did make me pause. Sad times.
ReplyDeleteWe lived for a couple of years in a very basic bungalow in an African village close to the equator without air conditioning. The houses all had tin roofs and basic brick walls with a line of gaps all along all the walls just below the roof and all the windows were louvre windows. There was a constant breeze that kept the houses cool throughout. Also, there were many tall trees around the houses.
DeleteIf I opened all the windows and the patio door in the middle of the night here in Central Florida, I would be afraid to go to sleep.
ReplyDeleteThe patio door opens to the garden which is surrounded by a very tall and very dense hedge and some tall fencing and two tall locked gates. The only creatures that may come in are the cats but if they do I don't notice them. What wakes me up is the hedgehog family, they can be very noisy eaters of insects and the occasional bits of bird food but they would never come inside.
DeleteNothing good will come of this meeting. Nothing.
ReplyDeleteAnd right you are/were.
DeleteThe end of the modern human can't come soon enough. Instead of living in harmony in the Eden that brought us into being somewhere along the line we became arrogant and selfish and in our intentional ignorance have wrought our own demise.
ReplyDeleteHot here too.
I still want to believe that not every person has become arrogant and selfish.
DeleteThank you for that timely poem. Yes, it's time to savor a pear and notice the light and shadow, the reality of these moments of our lives. The climate here in this northwestern corner of the west side of Washington State is more like what R grew up with in Ireland, although summer can last up to a week or two now. It started raining lightly last night and is still raining quietly with a temperature of 67 degrees. On the west side of Washington State, the temperatures now are in the 80s to high 90s.
ReplyDeleteHere's something sustaining for shadowy times:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVrTf5yOW5s
"... You can take my body
You can take my bones
You can take my blood
But not my soul ..."
As usual, you share wonderful links, thank you.
DeleteCodex: Are you surprised at this point? The time to prevent this was the 80s now we have to figure out how to live with it.
ReplyDeleteRecovery going well?
It's not quite as black and white as that but I get your point. There are currently five members of my family working in various capacities in/for climate science/politics ranging from research vessels in the South Atlantic to Climate Change commissions advising governments, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC
Deleteand teaching climate science at various leves in second and third level education. Communication in this family is challenging but also inspiring. Nothing is fixed, we have much to learn and to fight for.
Codex. I know how complex it is. Sabine 420 ppm!!!!! right now.
DeleteCodex: Short post on women on mine and women arent showing up...
ReplyDeletePutin's gonna Putin Trump yet again. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteAt least we never expected much.
DeleteThree or four years ago hear, it hit 38C for a week in June. I bought a mattress and put it in the basement. I still sleep in the basement when it's hot out but I think we'll have to look into air conditioning to survive the coming years.
ReplyDeleteCodex. Thank you for the link.
ReplyDelete