Temp: 33 degrees
HooooWeeeee! Did I say I could feel the hotness coming, or what? The official high was 31 with a Humidex rating of 35, but the two thermometers I've got around the house both said it was 33 in the shade yesterday (that's 91.5 yankee degrees) - and when placed out in the sun, the poor thermometer nearly popped ... it was at 44 when I figured it probably only works accurately in the shade.
So, oddly, even after a really late Friday night followed by a fairly late Saturday night, I found myself awake by 5AM this morning. That's only 3 hours sleep, but for some reason I couldn't get back to sleep. I tried - for about 2 hours I tried, but the sun was shining, the temperature was rising, and my alergies were really bugging me, so there was no hope of getting any more sleep.
I made some breakfast and puttered a bit, went to the basement to play with my big screen a bit ... I had bought a digital-audio fibre-optic input/output board for my computer last week (only $70 - can you believe it???) so that I could input from my DVD player, digital hard disk recorder, and DAT machine, and I've also got a Dolby 5.1 THX audio system for the computer, so I'm working on making this puppy the one-stop audio/video server for the new Rec Room. I popped a wireless internet card into it (only $40 at FutureShop) so that it's online with the rest of the computers in the house, and I've got the Dolby 7.1 emulator working for all audio sources except the DVD player for some crazy reason. I'm convinced that the 7 year old DVD machine I'm using, while capable of transmitting digital audio over a SPDIF fibre-optic cable, isn't capable of Dolby encoding ... or maybe my fancy shmancy new sound card is only accepting a stereo feed? Who knows - I still need to investigate that one.
But I digress, it was now 11AM and I wanted to be in the SUN! I started weeding the back yard, and watering all the plants. That turned into a re-grooming of the flower beds, and a weeding/watering out front. Wow, it's noon already? I'd been in the noon-hour sun with my shirt off for an hour, so better safe than sorry, time to go in for an hour and make sure I wasn't burning. Back to the basement to start up the video game console ... but ... before I could play 10 minutes, Carole came downstairs saying "It sure is hot up there, and it's so cool down here in the basement - what do you say we watch a movie on your swanky six foot screen?" Sure, why not... so we threw in "Rock Star" and killed an hour and a half of the midday heat in the cool dark basement.
After that though, secure that I hadn't had too much sun yet, I headed back outdoors, looking for something that needed to be done in the yard. Over the next two hours I raked two garbage bags full of moss out of the lawn, then arranged a rockery trim around my newly groomed flower gardens. Sweet Baby Jesus, it was hot out. I was drenched in sweat - which I guess is a good thing... it's when you stop sweating that you're in trouble, right? I still felt like I wasn't getting enough liquids, so I went in for a few beers. and a steak sandwich made from yesterday's Keg leftovers. Yeah, I think it's time to cool down again - so I went back down to the basement and popped in another movie. LOL, two movies during the heat of the day, yet I still managed to get my fill of sun (my back was a little red, but completely fine by bedtime) and I managed to have a really productive day of yard work.
I went back out again for half an hour around 6, but it was so hot and humid (By this time it was 35 degrees INSIDE the house!) that the only bearable place was the basement, so, armed with a six pack and some nachos, the rest of my evening consisted of racing my way up to 6th position on the Need For Speed Most Wanted blacklist. I headed up around 10pm, where Carole was watching Ralphie May's trials and tribulations at Celebrity Fat Club. That was mildly amusing...
Before we knew it, it was dark out, and by time we were in bed, it was past 11:30. In a way it felt like a lazy and unproductive day, what with all the movie watching and video games, but at the same time I got a month's worth of gardening and yardwork done, AND I'm starting to get a nice base tan ;-)
I hear tomorrow's going to be a SCORCHER! ... and I'll be back in the office...
Posted by Calvin at June 25, 2006 11:24 AM