VIRB

We're having a bit of a heat wave here in the Willamette Valley. (I guess Washington is getting hit too, but it's Washington so who cares, really?) It looks like the temperature just peaked at 97.4 F. That's hot anywhere, but considering our mean temp for May is in the upper 50s to low 60s, it is extremely hot for here. It would be hot for late August, never mind May. Global warming. Rah. Rah. Shish-boom-bah. This is the "grim meathook future" that JWZ always references.

When we found out this was gonna occur, I was actually pretty happy. I do like the hot weather, or what passes for such 'round these parts. However, going from 55 on Wednesday to 90 on Thursday to nearly a hundred today is a little abrupt for the human body to take with a great deal of grace.

Add to that the fact that the trees in our yard don't have their foliage yet, and you have a recipe for getting cooked.

And from the irony file, yesterday a couple folks here in Mill City died, technically speaking from the weather. If we were in Chicago and people started dropping in the heat, I'd be like "yeah, it happens." Here, it's a bit unusual. It turned out they didn't die from heat stroke. They died from hypothermia.

"But Chris," you say. "Weren't you just going on about how it was 90 yesterday?" Yup. I was. These people went swimming in the Santiam River, water temp of 38 degrees.

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