I went through Sacramento, California one time and saw a sign saying turkey crossing. Which prompted me to look around for politicians.
Now, that raises some new questions: who crossed the road first, the chicken or the egg (or the mother goose and her goslings)? And if a tree in a nearby forest was struck by lightning and fell on the road, but everybody was there to hear it, would the mother goose and goslings still survive to hear it?
It seems I was wrong about that. It's not going to be peaking at 35c, it's going to be peaking at 43c. It's going to be floating around those high's all week. The local government even issued warnings. This is rather unexpected. It can get pretty hot but not that hot. I'm so glad that I'm expected to finish all of my coursework tomorrow! At least I won't have to spend my days in the heat writing reports, so that's a big plus. How should I spend my time on the heatwave? I have some ideas... But either way, I'm glad that the endless coursework saga is coming to an end. I'll be able to have some real free time at last!
Agreed. Those things are creepy. When I was a kid and went out to the local park once, one of them decided to land on the lapel of my shirt. ..................... 15 seconds of screaming and flailing later ................... *shudder* Wow. That sounded like it was going to be a horror film, but then it became really cool, like something from a fantasy film ... or Skyrim. May I recommend ... *thinks* Lemon, Lime and Bitters (on ice)? Or maybe, for after meals - Crème de menthe (on ice). Just wondering: is it a dry heat, or is there lots of humidity? I don't have a problem with dry heat, even at those temperatures, but if I have to go out in the sun, I put on a shirt, a hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen. You know -- like any reasonable person would. But if it's hot and humid ... ugh. Either go to the beach (and don't forget your sunshade etc.), or stay home, close the blinds, grab a cold drink, and put on the electric fan. Yeesh!
The forecast picture I posted says that it'll be 13% relative humidity... which is super low. It makes sense though. When the sun's out all day searing the earth with its rays, everything dries out really quickly. Even the dirt does. It develops a beige-like colour and cracks, which means no annoying weeds grow! Big plus. (Don't worry, rivers don't dry out. We have plenty of water here in Crete.) The heat's already coming. It's night time now and I'm sweating quite a bit. This isn't even the beginning of it, so I'm sure it'll be very fun. Uh... I don't do any of that. Well, I have a short-sleeved shirt of course, but I always have that! I guess I'm unreasonable. Or I'm just a Cretan who's used to these kind of weather conditions. Who knows Sunscreen is something I put on when I'm at the beach for more than an hour. But I hate sunscreen! The sea is infested with it. I go for a swim and the water has that stenchy chemical smell sunscreen has, which is absolutely horrible! And the idea that I'm swimming around sunscreen remnants from a huge mixture of bodies isn't particularly comforting. Yuck. I mean, c'mon! The sea should smell salty. Those are mostly the main Chania beaches though where the tourists are. The beaches farther down Crete where my village is have crystal clear waters that are absolutely stunning. They've got that lovely blue hue to them. I don't swim much anymore but I love oceans and beaches. I find them really romantic.
I don’t know if i’ve ever experienced it that low; when i was growing up it would usually be something like 20-25%. I moved to a semi arid part of the state so I guess the weather will be bone dry…but too hot. And it is suburban hell so not much shade.
speaking of crete (sort of) i’ve been learning ancient greek lately. it’s my latest thing and i reeeaaallly like it. In high school i got three declensions deep into Latin, but I stopped because i had a fundamental realization that i didn’t care about it. but a couple months ago i experienced a flaming conflagration in my soul of the desire to read homer in greek. it came out of nowhere; i haven’t even read Homer in english; but i took this as a sign from Heaven that if i applied myself to greek my efforts would be rewarded and i would understand what Hölderlin meant when he said all that stuff. i’m really cruising along through these introductory lessons in the out of print pdf-textbook that i found. lesson 8 no problem, indicative, future, o and a declensions…now i’m waiting for it to get so incredibly difficult: six principle parts of the verb? well…kyrie eleison
I'm sorry! I don't mean "reasonable" like that. It's only, the summer sun in Australia is incredibly strong. I like going out in the sun, but the last time I did, I went cycling by the beach for two-three hours, and ended up getting sunburn. Also, my eyes are sensitive (and I have to wear glasses all the time). So yeah, I'll wear sunglasses in summer. And I'll put on a shirt and a hat. Sunburn is no fun. On the other hand, I'm not one of those people who will slather on so much sunscreen they look like a piece of meat, ready to be fried on the frying pan of life. I mean, that's just ... ugh. I just put on enough to protect vulnerable areas, like my arms and legs and face. Then again, sunburn and skin cancer (and all kinds of cancer) are common here in Australia. Beaches like that do sound beautiful and romantic. They're a lot better than some of the beaches we have here, all greyish and full of the plastic rubbish that people throw in the sea. Yuck.
In Colorado we had single digit humidity. I remember 8% at one point. I live in San Diego now and we are still waiting for it to warm up. I think it's suppose to be 67F today.
Haha, that kyrie eleison made me laugh. Ancient Greek is taught as part of the regular high school curriculum here in Greece. Young me did not like it. But I never got to learn it anyway because of various reasons... like being absent from the country Greek in general is hard. I'd say the hardest part about it is the super complex grammar. There's like 10 different ways to spell every word, and the way you spell it changes depending on the form/use case. We, for example, have four different letters for the vowel e: ι, η, υ and also ει (the letters ε and ι combined together to form an e sound). It's honestly a nightmare. English is dead easy in comparison to Greek. If I remember right, Ancient Greek has a ridiculous amount of definite articles. There's 10 of them or something like that. It was 37c today (98f). I had two windows open and they were blowing hot air like they were heaters! The tap water was also really warm. It's definitely getting hotter by the day. It'll peak on Thursday and then it'll calm down, hopefully. Maybe I'll make a trip to the sea soon.
Perhaps you are a person who hasn't had skin cancer yet. I grew up in similar weather conditions and spent lots of time in the sun without protecting my skin. I can't warn my younger self to be less cavalier about toasting my epidermis, but I can warn you.
I am sorry; I wish I could speak Greek. All I know (fluently) is: Δεν μιλάω ελληνικά, λυπάμαι. In English, it reads -- roughly -- as "Den miláo elliniká, lypámai", which translates (I think?) as "I don't speak Greek; I'm sorry". *blush* I've read a lot about Greek mythology and history, and I know individual words like xiphos (or the modern σπαθί, pronounced "spathí", i.e. "sword"). But I'm not fluent, nowhere near. λυπάμαι!
yeah i was expecting those to be crazy but in the a and o declensions they seem to directly parallel the inflectional endings pretty well. idk about the third declension. how is ancient greek taught in the schools? the grammar is very different but maybe a lot of the words are the same; how much groundwork is necessary before you can read texts as a modern greek?
Continuing Louanne's Tribute to Summer that she started on the Music thread (it being the Solstice today apparently): Geez, this was my freakin' childhood! I had exactly that first green Stingray bike they showed, only mine had metal flake paint. And the local park had one of the rocket-looking slides. There weren't watersldies yet, and yeah, we could go to local swimming pools, but there was also Six Flags and the infamous Log Flume. A long trip though, and only when the whole family would go. Some of the neighbors also had backyard pools, either above-ground or built-in, and we all had wading pools. And of course there was always the trusty yard sprinkler. But yeah, we used to just run up and knock on a door when we knew a family had moved in with a kid about your age and say "Wanna be friends?" The answer was always "Sure, why not?" and that settled the matter. Talk about memory central!!
I dont know if im happy about this ... But im not NOT happy about it. Since starting my new job, ive told my mentor, my supervisor, and a new coworker friend (who is a painter and shared with me his paintings so i shared with him one of my published works). Well, that blew up and now they wrote an article about me and my writing and put it in the staff news letter. Everyone has been really supportive and really interested in my writing. Yesterday, the director told me they are going to share my publication achievements with the board. On the one hand, im thrilled by the support. On the ither hand, ive been pretty private about my writing and have not really had good experiences sharing with non writers. At my last job, i felt like they were rolling their eyes at me and my boss constantly talked down about the SFF genre and took jabs at me for liking and writing it. And also suggested AI could improve the genre. BUT... Now im extra paranoid. What if i write something the board doesnt like? What if they start looking at me side-ways like "we hired this unhinged person??" What if they make assumptions about me based off the characters i have? (All of this occured to me this morning....) I wanted, i guess, recognition that writing isnt just a "hobby" for me..... But now, the attention is making me anxious
Oh, wow, that a brought back a lot of memories. Thanks for sharing. I remember twirling on the metal merry-go-round, the rocket ship at the park, the high dive at the outdoor community pool (and swimming lessons there), the roller rink, lawn darts, running in the sprinkler, kool-aid, the plain, round charcoal grill, hide-n-seek past dark, and sleeping under an open window.
It's not the same thing exactly, but this is how I feel every time I post a story to the short story contest on this site. Maybe it's the way a writer feels whenever we share our writing? But, aren't we writing it to be shared? Maybe not everyone will get what we are trying to do, but if even one person does - even if I only get one vote in the contest - that's good enough for me.
Whatever you do, don't write a bestseller! But seriously, a little anxiety over attention is normal, but I wouldn't worry about your employers thinking you're a fruit loop. I mean, they traffic in literature exclusively so that's all normal fodder. If you were the leader of a Christian purity association or something, then maybe, but writers are all nuts to one degree or another.
As someone who basically overthinks everything, I think you are overthinking it a little bit. Your new co-workers sound great and I really don't see how they are going to go from liking your work to thinking you are unhinged. Truth be told, I'm always anxious over sharing my writing to people who've liked it before. The thought "what if they don't like it as much as before"? is pretty normal. It happens that they don't like it as much as before, though, and that's actually okay and normal too. Maybe they'll like the next thing better, or the one after that. But nobody has ever called me unhinged and an idiot. Well, except someone who called my story a "transcript" because it was 50% dialogue. I ignored him.
You don’t need to worry until they change the kitchen ware to plastic and paper…that’s when they’ve made their minds up! That aside, it’s a good time to disclose, new office and colleagues, this knowledge will be incorporated into the formation of you in their minds, and they sound like a supportive bunch.
What if i write something the board doesnt like? What if you write something they love? What if they make assumptions about me based off the characters i have? What if they don't? But now, the attention is making me anxious. Take an M&M and call me in the morning, J.T., you're a smart, talented person who has achieved recognition. Your present co-workers are obviously not the same idiots with whom you used to work. The idiots' nasty comments about your work and genre have passed their use-by date. Deny them space in your brain and in your thoughts. Replace them with the new positive experiences. Onward. Forward. Excelsior.
