Easing In

I was right, I didn't sleep well at all last night, maybe 3-4 hours at most, and it took its toll today. Thank goodness it was a work-from-home day! I'd also been tossing and turning over work stuff which came to fruition today when I could least handle it, but it's out of my hands now and moved up the chain of command so I think I'll sleep well tonight. Especially as the US men look to be going down in World Cup defeat. Serves our country right for having the grifter in chief get involved.

Footies

The heat continues to dissipate, so for the first time in almost a week (not counting when I had to move my car) we went out today to do our grocery shopping. And my left hallux no longer hurt! Whatever the shoe place did when they reupholstered my orthotics, it worked like a charm. So happy I can now make plans to actually walk when we're in England! Might have been nice to get some sleep this evening, as I have work in the morning, but too many idiots decided they had to shoot off more fireworks despite the torrential rains this evening, and besides, England beat Mexico in a World Cup game for the ages, so we had to stay up for that. I suspect I'll be something of a zombie tomorrow.

The Paradox of Intolerance

For mysterious reasons, I've spent much of this July 4 thinking about the Nazis in Skokie and the paradox of tolerance. As I age I have less and less patience for bigotry and hatred and bullying, and wonder more and more what can be done to curb it, stop it before it starts, and punish it to the full extent of the law. But I do despair, especially when I look around and see warmongering glorified (the tall ships were lovely and the flybys awe-inspiring to an extent, but they're all symbols of war when you get right down to it) and cheating rewarded, even when the media doesn't call it out. I mean, the World Cup commentators looked like they were itching to discuss how much Paraguay cheated and were repeatedly rewarded for it whilst France was punished for their reactions to being punched and kicked and such, but they couldn't bring themselves to use the "C" word at all, cowed as much as our political media not using the "L" word to describe the everyday utterances of those in power. And my goodness, when will we stop idolizing billionaires as if their gains are not mostly ill-gotten? But even amidst the despair there is hope. We have a lovely mayor and tons of lovely citizens who deeply care about making this country better, the TV fireworks were pretty (and we even saw some local bursts out our front window), I got to watch bits of 1776 and Yankee Doodle Dandy again, and once this awful animal-frightening noise is over I look forward to the heat wave finally dissipating.

Move-In Day

Today our downstairs neighbor's moving van officially arrived with the rest of their stuff. Pablo asked if we could move our car, not optimal on a 99-degree day, but we obliged and found street parking about a block away. Even so, that trip and the one to retrieve our car when the van had gone pretty much knocked us out. I keep forgetting I'm an Old (something us Olds do forget), and the heat affects me more each year. That's why I don't much care about coworkers asking me what I did during my week off while they travel to beaches or foreign lands. I didn't want to go anywhere in this kind of weather even when I was younger and not as affected! September is soon enough for our overseas vacay. Now I must go take care of my latest heat rash...

We Have the Power

We knew it was coming.We'd been warned that Con Edison was treating faulty equipment in this heat wave and there'd be brownouts to avert an even greater blackout situation, but until two hours ago we weren't affected. Then at the height of the evening heat, all the power went out. Thank goodness I'd showered not long before, and we have three battery-operated fans and four LED lamps. Even so, it didn't take long for the apartment to heat up during the last two hours. It's not like I could do anything besides sleep, or at least lie down and try to forget how uncomfortable I was. The electricity just came back on, and now we're waiting for the place to cool down again. I've said it before, I don't take any creature comforts for granted, and I'm very grateful it was only a 2-hour blip!

Forward Into the Past

White Rabbits, and the heat wave begins. Although I decided to make an English breakfast (lots of different breakfast meets plus eggs plus caramelized onions) I knew I'd be taking it easy the rest of the day. But I'd promised a work colleague that I'd send her a photo of all the old gum wrapper chains I'd made during my childhood and even into my young adult years, so I had to get out the five tin containers in which I've kept them lo these many decades, and while I was at it I dragged out the three or so jars of buttons I've kept for nearly that long. I even tried my hand at lengthening a couple chains with some wrappers still in the tins and, hey, I've still got it. I'm not crafty but by golly I can still chain gum wrappers! Anyway, Robin and I will devise a photo shoot tomorrow in the hopes that someone may want to give these sentimental treasures a good home. Meanwhile, more World Cup (England won, hoorah, USA winning at the moment but down to 10 men) and sending out of laundry (since put away!) and just not trying to move around too much in this heat. The living room blinds and shades are drawn closed until at least Saturday. Ugh...

Seeping In

We're starting to discover how extreme heat, even the onset of same, affects older people. Because, you know, we're Olds. I have various stomach and muscle ailments, Robin has been having trouble focusing, and we're not even going to try doing any more housework for the rest of the week. The living room blinds are drawn against the afternoon sun, I'm getting through my analog reading, and we're in a holding pattern watching the World Cup and baseball. Our downstairs neighbor Pablo volunteered to help us throw out our very old air conditioner, but we're not taking him up on his offer until the heat wave subsides. I'm just glad the kitchen trash is out. Whatever limited mail we get can wait until maybe Sunday; I'm content to have finally received notice that my $300/month pension from my first job will start coming in Any little bit helps!

Floor, Bored

Before the extreme heat descends upon the NYC area, I decided to get some minimal house cleaning done (the only kind of house cleaning I actually do), and scrubbed the microwave clean-er (it's a quarter century old, there's only so much I can do) as well as wet Swiffering the bathroom and kitchen floors. The latter will still need extensive mopping but, as I say, cleanER as opposed to clean, and that will have to do. Tomorrow we venture out to pick up my reupholstered orthotics and grab some sushi at our favorite place, and then we hunker down for the rest of the week. Meanwhile, the downstairs family continues to wait for their furniture to arrive, but they're so lovely and quiet and nice I'm still thrilled with them!

Won't You Be My Neighbor

The family downstairs seems to have begun moving in, although the folks coming and going don't seem to be the same ones we met earlier this month. Robin calls them "the advance guard," and assumes they're mainly there to install air conditioning and other necessities since we have yet to see a moving van either. They do seem to do it during the evenings though, which tends to be disruptive to a 9 PM bedtime or even, in some cases, an afternoon nap. Ah well, the noise isn't that excessive (I'm just hyper-sensitive) and it's not like I have to deal with getting up early this coming week so I presume my circadian rhythm will right itself eventually. In the meantime, only one World Cup game today, the first of the "gang of 32" lose-and-you're-out round. Mets won their first game under their new interim manager, Yanks seem to be winning but Boston has won the first three already and who knows what's going on with New York baseball?

Footie Foodie!

With the heat wave coming later this week, we decided to get our food shopping and my orthotic refurbishing out of the way today. I don't anticipate leaving the house any time in the next few days that would normally require the orthotics in my sneakers, so this was the best opportunity to get it done before I'll really need nice inserts for all that England walking in September. And it's nice to have a stocked fridge leading up to the 4th, again because we might not feel like going out much before that due to the heat. I started catching up on financial things, speaking with my brother about how to fill out my paperwork for the last of Mom's estate IRAs (it's all going to require sending out via FedEx from the office next week, but at least I know how to get everything ready for that) and organizing my receipts. And then it was on to World Cup watching, an activity I plan to do the most in the coming week.