An infernal day

Yet another day when one suspected that the flames of hell were reaching their fiery fingers up our way. My father used to talk about the the day when it was 100 degrees here in Seattle. At that time, he worked at the PI, and somehow that made it worse. The PI offices were in a building on 5th and Pine, right in the unobstructed sun. Fifty years later, he was still talking about it. Well, yesterday, it was 103!!! It was so hot that there was a story about it in the New York Times! The previous hot day record was 100 in 1941. That was no doubt my father’s hot day. And to think that I had to walk to work!!!!! Usually, if it is pushing 80 degrees, my aunt gives me a ride because she understands what a heat wimp I am – but her car was in the shop. What to do? I knew there was no way I could walk to work. Finally, I got dressed for work – all but my hose which I put in my bag – and stepped into a cold shower. I drenched myself, clothes, hair, straw hat and all, and left on my hideous ordeal. By the time I got there, I was nearly dry and felt okay. What a surprise when I arrived! They had declared an emergency, and nearly all the lights were off – only the really necessary ones could be left on. This would both save energy and lessen the heat usually produced by the light bulbs. (I keep telling Rachael about the baby chickies being incubated by a single light bulb, but she is unmoved and still won’t turn lights off.) Actually, the darkened atmosphere was very pleasant, and seemed to ease somewhat the tense energy that is usually present in a hospital. And it was cool. I was very glad that I had gone to work, because I had nice patients, no crises, and it was relatively cool.
And what do these pictures have to do with all that? They are part of the lovely hot day dinner that Rebecca cooked for us a few days ago. This is the cucumber drink I mentioned in a previous post.