random thoughts – Day 1,525 – (Wednesday) – warming up

The weather has executed a quick step into summer and delivered a one-two punch of heat. The temperatures were in the 80s on Tuesday, and today’s high hit 92 by some reports. Knowing it would be hot triggered a debate this morning before I left for the office. Should I put on the A/C for Kiki? Well, should I? Will she be too hot? Will she be ok? 

In the end, it was decided to keep the curtains drawn against the sun and the A/C off. The system hadn’t been run yet this year, and I would be at the office-office downtown if it decided to do anything weird and crunchy sounding like it did a year or two ago.

On the walk downtown.

It turned out to be bright and sunny and warm. Hot, even. With air quality alerts. Yay. In the office, it was chilly and I had on a sweater.

A walk was taken downtown when I decided I wasn’t interested in the lunch carried in to work (frozen, microwave Korean dumplings) and really wanted the salad I neglected to assemble due to running late. This triggered another debate. What to get for food and from where? Subway was considered. The foot long veggie used to be my emergency warm weather lunch go-to for the trifecta of accessibility (next door), affordability, and predictability, but I usually toss half the bread which seems wasteful.

I walked around the block, pondering lunch as if it were as weighty a matter as inflation, immigration, or world peace. Yesterday’s lunch at a work wellness informational event about Multiple Sclerosis was Greek food from Athenian Corner and included a great salad. The restaurant is a mere two streets from the office. And there was a winner. And it was good. Crispy, chilled iceberg lettuce, cucumber slices, wedges of tomato, a slice of green pepper, Kalamata olives, feta cheese, and dressing. Plus an appropriate slice of fresh soft bread with butter. It was perfect.

Back at home, the thermostat read 84 degrees. It felt a bit warm but not as humid as it was outside. Kiki was lounging on the stairs and let me approach and stroke her sweet, soft little face. She was extra charming this morning and greeted me in the dining room with very chatty meowing when I came downstairs, then moved away when I approached to pet her. She eventually let me rub her cheeks, which she enjoys. Some day I will brave getting closer, and then attempt to pick her up.

The A/C was turned on. It works. There were no weird noises, except for the high-pitched screech of anguish from my wallet over the spike that will occur in the electric bill. I had hoped to skate through the entire month without heat or A/C, but that is no longer to be. Chilled air blew from under the couch, chilling my shorts-clad bare lower legs. After a couple hours, the temperature registered on the thermostat showed a drop of a meager three degrees to read 81, but somehow, I was cold enough to be sitting under a blanket. So confusing. I think the thermostat sits in a little heat pocket.

Kiki, meanwhile, after a brief foray through the living room, was back to reclining on the staircase, chillin’ like a villain at the halfway point where the temperature difference from the cool air of downstairs meets the warmer air upstairs. She still seems more like an imaginary pet than a real one, but she’s coming out more often, and like the weather, seems to be warming up. She meows like she’s trying to tell me something, and lets me pet her.

Tomorrow’s forecast is for the high 80s and a chance for a heavy thunderstorm in the afternoon, with possibility of hail. Might be a wild one, but it's a remote day, so I can keep an eye on the homefront.