Greetings Earthlings. I understand that Europe and London are looking forward to 104F within a few days. That sounds really awful, particularly since so many apartments and houses do not have air conditioning. It's hot here, but not that hot. The Tour de France is just cooking, it's so hot. I don't know how the riders stand it.
Today was warm. It started out with the neighborhood yard sale. We just got here and have not had time to accumulate enough stuff to need to yard sale. We did that once when we were leaving West Seattle. Never again, it was a lot of work, not that many people showed up, and they all wanted half price off. When we left North Carolina, I put ads on Craig's List for "free, come get it, owner will not help you." They did come and take a lot of stuff away, I don't think we did any dump runs. Anyway, this was car was parked in front of the house this morning, it belonged to one of the neighborhood sale customers. It's a 55 Chevy station wagon, it's a basic model.
We rode to the lake again. Jim has put a new bike computer on his bike, and reports that we are, indeed, faster on the new bikes. It's not surprising, they weigh less and have smoother tires. They're not narrow, but they're not knobby, either. The boat ramp was very busy.
This is one of the hydrangeas that came with the house. It's not one of the giant fluffy bloomers, it's more subdued. In the fall the flowers turn a rust color and pretty much dry on the branches. I cut one back last fall, but not the other. The one I cut back is blooming better, to there's a data point for this year.
I find these tweets disturbing, but informative. This, from the heartland.
These are from health care workers in the Portland, OR area.
So, this pretty much validates our decision to not ride in traffic with cars anymore. I am too afraid of getting hurt and the ERs being full. It's kind of depressing.
That's it! That's all I have to report.
WOW I had not idea that covid and short staffing ws a thing. That is frightening.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what the temperature is here now, I am wearing wool shoes and double layer sweat shirt...cuddled up with a good book and a hot cuppa.
When my now 55 year old daughter was 14 or 15 she rode her bike ten miles every morning to a job herding kids at the YMCA. I generally drove to meet her coming home and drove her the rest of the way. One night I got all the way to the Y. That morning she was riding across a street. She was going straight and had the right of way. A woman turning right hit her, braked and drove off. She got to work and worked all day, but was too sore to start home unless I didn't show up before say midnight. We seem to be a tad more responsible to bikes these days, but not much. I told my grands to ride on the sidewalks and signal their approach to pedestrians.
ReplyDeleteI surely appreciate your line of reasoning. I doubt any driver would even brake, these forty odd years later.
I gave up and got a heat pump last summer when we had the heat wave. I can't stand long stretches of 90-100 degree weather. My western Washingtonian blood just isn't used to it. I am depressed on many fronts and very worried about our health care system as we face increased Covid as well as many other problems.
ReplyDeleteI love that vintage wagon. I think those are lacecap hydrangeas. Apparently our Covid numbers have climbed quite a bit here but I've heard nothing about how the healthcare system is coping (or not coping). We're doing our best to stay well!
ReplyDeleteThe healthcare situation is similar here in Canada. We have a shortage of HCWs due to burnout from the past couple of years. Add to this the lack of funding by our provincial government, and ERs and even hospitals are shutting down especially in rural areas.
ReplyDeleteMost times it is temporary, for 48 hours or so but it is frightening.
Take care out there.
Archeologists dig up old civilizations and wonder why/how they declined all of a sudden. I guess we're finding out.
ReplyDeleteOur not for profit health care system in Canada is in the same boat. Nurses, doctors and everybody else are worn out. A lot of nurses are coming up on retirement age and back in the nineties there were huge cuts which are coming back to haunt us now. Who could have predicted this? Oh right, any nurse or doctor. Stay safe.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the TdF ought to take a leaf from the same book as the Tour Down Under in Australia and other races and rides in New Zealand...start early and finish before the worst of the heat
ReplyDeleteFeeling pretty secure here, now that I've seen Massachusetts is one of only two states with minimal Covid, which I'm sure is due to the very high vaccination rates. Hope our health care system stays strong here in the Bay State.
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