Hottest 20-day stretch in 100,000 years

 It's been a hot one, but last summer I don't think we had any over-100 days and I'm not sure we will here. However, over the whole Earth, it's been the hottest 20-day stretch in 100,000 years. Lovely. 

I'm just hoping things hold together for a bit longer but I guess tons of people are hoping so, too. An interesting thing is that on the r/hawaii discussions I never see complaints about heat. Hawaii's warm, of course, but it's not as warm as it gets here and there's not the near-freezing winter to deal with each year. So you get used to it being 75-85 degrees all the time and it doesn't feel hot somehow.

I got 20 things ready to list last night although that took a fair amount of sifting and sorting, plus I cleaned out some stuff I didn't want. 

I woke up around 4, determined to get plenty of sleep. When it cooled down a bit, at least cooler than the 84 degrees it was in here, I took off for the day's bike ride. I had a big bag of books I decided I'd leave by the McDonald's where every bum in town passes by, but when I passed Tom's place I decided I'd leave them there for him and his hangers-on. James was around there, no longer "the lion" I guess as he's shaved off his mane, and we talked a bit. He said he's smelled and seen smoke rising from Tom's place that "smells electrical" and I said I've seen situations where a bad connection gets hot. At one apartment the electrician took the cover plate off and there was the cutest little flame in there. James wanted to know if I thought he ought to call Tom and I was in the process of saying that by all means he should, when someone pulled up. 

I thought the guy was maybe buying something from James but he was just turning up to get his tire pumped up so while he carefully explained to James, who was unclear on this, that the flattish tire was the one that needed the air and James maneuvered the air hose over, I took off, calling out to James that he should call Tom.

Then I went to 99 Ranch for some dried mushrooms and a new flavor of ramen packet - I toss the noodles and use the seasoning packets. It was busy in there because it's Sunday. 

Next was Lowe's which somehow ended up about to close. I wanted to buy some things for a project and found the things, and then realized I'd have to use the self-checkout and also because I didn't have enough cash on hand to cover it, would have to use my card. That all actually went OK, though, with my card being declined because I typed the password in wrong, then accepted when I got it right. 

I rode back here with a 6-foot long skinny oak board in hand and a bag holding my other things hanging off of the handlebar. This turns out to be important because I headed down Junction Avenue to take my usual route, through the complex that has Foxconn and a lot of other companies in there. As soon as I turned off the public road there was the zombess in her old dark blue? black? SUV at least without a zombie dog yapping away also. "This is not a pass-through" the zombess said, then repeated it. I rolled my eyes a bit and turned around, taking the road the communicates between the end of Junction and Rogers, and thus had to ride past a bunch of zombies camped there in their Mad Max RVs and various constructions. It's not too bad riding a bike past them because by the time they realize I'm there, I'm past them and gone. 

Apparently this zombess has some sort of arrangement with some of the businesses around, to keep their parking lots clear of people they don't like. This does not keep some of the filthiest, scariest, zombies from passing through and stealing things and leaving a mess but I bet it cuts it down. And one problem is, it's not generally realized that the class stratification among those riding bikes are as fine and clearly defined as the little bands of color found in sedimentary rocks. They see a bike and a trailer, or a bike and the person on it not wearing racing gear and carrying a bag and a board, and to them that's the same as the scumsuckers around here riding around with trailers made of junk and wheelchair wheels, with tired on the bike being very optional. B.O. required though. 

I can actually respect this, though. I've ridden past Foxconn many a time when there are techs getting off of work and frankly, to nice Chinese people like them even nice, normal Americans are pretty intimidating and orders of magnitude more likely to be crazy or violent. The American underclass is positively horrifying to those from civilized countries, so if they don't want me riding through there on my bike trailer, I'm find with that. 

I got back here, made sure the area around here is neat, and buttoned up for the night.