The Heat Rolls On

I finally decided I'd had enough of hiding from the heat. I walked to CVS late this morning to get a small fan to replace the one that died last year. I shouldn't have bought the fan. Not only is it all plastic and rather cheap-y despite the $20 it cost, but it's smaller than even my old fan that died in 2006. I'll buy another big fan at Acme when I can get it home. They didn't have anything larger than a 12-inch at CVS. (I also picked up mouth wash and milk there.)

After I got in, set up the fan, and had burgers and broccoli for lunch, I finally got to washing the trash and recycling cans. I've been trying to do that for weeks now. They all looked disgusting, and the trash can was starting to smell. Every time I wanted to do it, either the weather would be too nasty or I'd just end up being too busy. I filled a bucket with water and soap, unloaded the trash bag and the bottles and cans into their respective outdoor containers (the paper stayed indoors to avoid errant hose spray), and went under the porch to start scrubbing.

I'm glad the hose is under my porch. Between the porch and the trees, it was at least 20 degrees cooler under there. It felt really nice, even in today's 95-degree weather. The hose was fun, too. My sisters and I liked to play under the hose on hot summer days. Usually we'd use it to wash the sand off of us before going inside, but sometimes we'd just play under it, squirting each other and our friends.

I finally got the trash and recycling cannisters as clean as they're going to get (the former doesn't smell anymore) and left them to dry on the porch. I spent the rest of the afternoon making sun-brewed tea, watching the second-season Greatest American Hero set I picked up used at FYE a few weeks ago, and working on editing the role-play.

Work was steady, not nearly as busy as yesterday, with a few obnoxious customers but otherwise no major problems. Worst that happened was we had to take down a bunch of bright-green stickers left by people doing inventory. I rode my bike again, since I was working late and really wanted to avoid the disasters of yesterday. My ride to work was slow, windy, and hot; my ride home was cooler and even windier.

It had been growing darker since about 6PM at work; one customer mentioned a storm coming. Good. As long as it happened after I got home, I welcomed storms. We needed them. Yes, the storm did happen well after I arrived, around 9-10PM.

I'm mega-mad. The zip disc that worked just fine this afternoon when I edited Friday's role-play part refused to work tonight. This marks the second disc I've gone through. I was hoping I wouldn't have to replace the zip drive, which was a Christmas present from my best friend, but it looks like it's necessary. I can't keep losing my work every couple of months. I was lucky Lauren had extras of the parts we did last week. I'm going to go to Staples tomorrow and see if I can get an external hard drive I can save my work on without needing those infernal disks. It'll be costly (anywhere from $100 to $300), but I think I can afford it, between last week's extra Memorial Day money and the economic stimulus check.