2001-07-23 - 11:21 p.m.

Summer Heat

It's Summer in Frown Town, and you expect it to be hot, but this is ridiculous. It's like 90 degrees outside! And it's not a nice ninety degrees either. It's humid, too. Actually it’s the three "H"s: hazy, hot and humid.

Desert residents of the Southwest U.S. always say how hot it is down where they are, but they always amend this declaration with the phrase: "but it’s a dry heat." Well, this is NOT a dry heat. It is sticky and nasty.

It makes the neighborhood a lot quieter: no kid wants to go out to play when it's like this. In fact, nobody wants to stir from their houses. Business at the comic store is down this week, and I suspect that's the reason why.

Oops, did I say it was quieter? Some sort of thumping bass is issuing from the house across the street. The people who live upstairs were burned out, but apparently the first floor is still habitable. Since they have no air conditioning, the people living down there have all their windows gloriously open so they can share their music with us. Isn't that nice of them? Earlier today it was some sort of Jamaican rap music now... dear Lord, I think they're playing Barry White!

That's another thing about the heat - it makes tempers shorter. It also makes people feel ill. Both the Manager and Lily are not feeling too well, and the heat seems to be the major cause. Now that I think about it, I'm not feeling too well myself.

When I was a kid Summer used to be my favorite time of year, but I suspect that it was half because of the warm weather and half because school was out. Now, I'm starting to appreciate the Fall and the Spring more; it's nice enough to go outside, but not hot enough to broil your brain inside your skull.