Under siege

Well, we have lived here in Bellingham now for a year and four months. Last winter we were completely surprised by the amount of snow we had (which was unusual, I discovered), and now, this heat and humidity. The image above is of the high temperatures for the day from www.probcast.com at the University of Washington, for today, July 28. Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter.

My husband figured out that if we close all the windows except for the bedroom and have our fan turned on high and blowing out the back door, it pulls relatively cool air onto us so we can sleep under a light sheet and stay fairly comfortable. We had day after day of 90+ temperatures in Boulder, but the humidity was in the teens. Here, while we are already in the mid-80s, the humidity is 63%. No wonder I'm feeling so hot.

I awoke at around 5:00am and walked out onto the front porch. The air was still, and the feeling in the early morning twilight was of incipient heat, of something unusual to come. Not one pine needle in our lovely tree was moving. It felt as though the day was holding its breath, not sure what to do. Although the air on the porch was cool in comparison to the air inside, it was just barely comfortable, even at that time of day. When I thought about the title of this post, "under siege" seemed appropriate. We are hunkering down and hoping things will get better soon. Here's a quote from the Cliff Mass Weather Blog:

Anyway, this is a very serious weather event, and the National Weather Service has upped their predictions to the century mark. People don't think about heat waves in the same vein as storms, but heat kills more people around the world. So drink lots of liquids and check on the elderly, who are particularly vulnerable.

My thoughts turned to the older people in my apartment complex, and then it struck me: hey, that means me! I am 66, so don't forget to check on me too, people!

On another topic, Nancy of Life in the Second Half has asked a provocative question: is the blogosphere bringing us together through our intention in order to create something new? I wrote something early in March about Teilhard de Chardin, in which I asked a similar question about what we are creating. What Nancy brought up is tantalizing: we are connected to one another in order to... I am unable to find a word. I just finished reading The Intention Experiment by Lynn McTaggart. This link will take you to a website created to allow interested people to give it a try. I'm still mulling the implications.

And lastly, I want to say thank you again and again to my commenters. I am buoyed by your appreciation and I am excited by the possibilities. My previous post to this one was commented on by so many of my new family. I feel absolutely surrounded by the promise of the future.
:-)