Tuesday, August 18, 2015

We're Havin' a Heat Wave

Today was the kind of day you wanted to hunker somewhere near a fan with a tall cool glass of ice water, crank up the air conditioning and not leave the house.  It was predicted to be the hottest day, perhaps of the month.

But, alas, this was also the day I was scheduled to have my eye measured in Sacramento for my upcoming cataract surgery (in November).  

The day actually started with reports of a magnitude 4 earthquake in the Bay Area.  Too small to be felt here, but one always wonders about precursors to "the big one."  This looked like it might have been on the Hayward fault...and I will be there tomorrow, going to book club a few miles down the road apiece.

Since I had to leave the house today anyway, I went to my mother's first to get her laundry, to be returned to her on Wednesday when I go for lunch.  We visited for a bit, and she insisted I had told her nothing about my lunch with my grammar school friends (sigh), but I let it go. 

The plan was to leave Atria and head for Sacramento, but there was a text message from Walt letting me know that I had left my cane at home.  I texted back that I'd be right there, but he didn't see that message because, bless him, he had hopped on his bike to come to Atria to let me know, in case I didn't see the message.  But I had, I drove home, got the cane and then headed to Sacramento.

It was 1 p.m. and this was the temperature as I started to back out of our driveway.


It is amazing to me that I have come to think of anything under 100 degrees as "not all that bad."

I drove to the eye clinic near Cal Expo and it was about 102 when I got there.  The appointment went quickly.  The woman doing the measuring had C.O. on her jacket, which I found out later is "certified orthoptist."  There were two patient chairs and four machines (one a computer) and she had to put my information into each machine in turn.  I had the eye measured in the first machine, and then the second, and then the third, then tlted backwards, like in a dental chair (but not as comfortable), where she put in drops (not to dilate) and then stuck an eye cup on the eye and washed it with water and took more pictures.

And then it was over.  I was back in the parking lot so quickly the ice in my diet coke was still icy and cold.

I saw that rush hour traffic was starting, so instead of going on the freeway I took the backroads to the Causeway, where it was still backed up, but I'd gotten around a lot of it.  

When I pulled into the driveway this was the temperature.


Thank goodness we were having leftovers that could be heated in the microwave for dinner.  Forecast for tomorrow seems to be less than 100, which isn't good by any means, but a heck of a lot better than 105.

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