In the Last Week...

...we've endured a bit of a heat wave. Though it's been in the 90s mostly the heat index has risen to above 100. I don't love it, Rob is melting, and Olive has been especially sticky-bodied and cruddy in her neck creases. Twice-daily cold showers do little to rinse away the sluggish feeling that this kind of weather elicits; I wouldn't bother except for the fact that they feel so divine. And we're still kickin' it without AC.

And while I'm on the subject of no AC, I have the opportunity to work in third world conditions where the temperature yesterday hit 98 indoors. Of course I've experienced hotter, but it was definitely the hottest I've ever been for that long a time span (9 1/2 hours) with no relief but a weak oscillating fan that blew around the fetid air. Mmmmm. I biked down to the market and didn't stop sweating until I walked outside at the end of the day. It was not at all unlike being in a sauna for far too long. I drank just under three gallons of water - an exorbitant amount of fluid, folks! - while I was there. It simply had to be done. Needless to say, no one was coming in to shop for oils that day, so it made my being there that much more depressing. Today, on the other hand, was a mild, almost autumnal 90-92 degrees. The customers all complained and carried around small paper fans, but all of us who stuck it out in the crematorium yesterday told them to be thankful that they hadn't been through the day before.

Amidst this unpleasant run of weather, we were visited by Rhett and Amanda, Rob's older brother and sister-in-law, who had driven from Oregon and are on their way to Hartford, Connecticut, where they're relocating for Amanda to attend pharmacy school. Of all the times for a couple of Alaskans-by-way-of-Oregon to come to our city! Both times Rob's siblings have come to see us the weather has been inhospitable (his older sister, Schelly, came in October to spend her one day with us in the chilly rain). We did decided to break out the window unit to make sleep possible for them in the back apartment where they stayed. Rob proudly gave them his behind-the-scenes tours of the aviary and zoo each day. I didn't get to see much of them because Thursday saw Olive struck with a fever so she and I stayed behind. She's been getting in a few more teeth, but I'm not sure the two things have anything to do with one another. The heat certainly wasn't alleviating the situation. Fortunately it only lasted the day and she was back to her old tricks the following morning.

I've been spending my evenings this week at the Khoreys' helping them get their house ready for a French family that is coming to live there for nearly a month as part of a house swap that they're doing. Nina, Lisa, and Alex, in turn, will be staying at their home in Marseilles. It's times like these that I wish I was a nanny to a passel of wee tots and I'd have to travel along with them on trips such as this. But then I wouldn't have an amazing and precocious almost-12 year-old with whom to spend my time. And since I can't go to France I'm taking the opportunity to go down to Maryland to see my family (my dad's sister, Holly, will be visiting from Florida while we're there) and all the friends I can possibly see in three short days.

A couple of videos, the first of which showcases Buggy's decidedly avant garde fashion sense: