Hottness

 

It is anticipated to be a replica of Dante's Inferno in terms of temperature today.  We are anticipated to hit 97 degrees F (~36 - 37 degrees C) today.... and our area is also experiencing high humidity (~65%) so it should be a sweltering, hot, day.  

With that forecast in mind, I rousted myself out of bed at 5:20am so that I could get my run in employing  "Sasquatch Mode" (no shirt).  It was already 78 degrees F ( ~25 - 26 degrees C) at 5:20am, so "Sasquatch Mode" was warranted regardless of the fright I induced in various wildlife (saw perhaps ~5 squirrels, ~10 rabbits, 1 garter snake, ~8 Killdeer (birds), a bunch of other birds, and 2 deer).  I was sopping wet, head-to-toe with sweat after finishing my 13.3 miles (~21.4 km)... even my running shorts were completely sopping wet.  By starting so early, my sun exposure was minimal.

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There was some type of electrical fire in a neighbor's home about 6 homes down the road from ours yesterday in the late afternoon.  There was a huge amount of smoke billowing out from both stories of the house, and there was unfortunately a fair amount of water damage from the fire-fighting. However, the neighbors all got out safely (including their cat), and the FIRE damage was limited to one small room (although the smoke and water effects permeate other parts of the home).

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PCS - 7... I seem to stubbornly be remaining at a relatively high pipe craving score the last several days.  I wish I could figure out a way to get it to dissipate back down to a lower level (perhaps in the 3-4 range... which would be a relief).  I have been actively trying to get myself to dream (or perhaps more accurately remember dreaming) about my pipes and pipe tobaccos as I *think* having those dreams helped me have relatively lower PCS scores during the daytime.  Part of the issue regarding my dreams may be related to my sleep pattern.  Over the last month or two I have been especially busy and active and by the time I lay down in bed ~11:30pm, and get ready to read a novel.... I find that I barely read for five minutes (typically I would read 20-30 minutes a night) before I am so very sleepy that I turn off the light.  It is usually at that time, that I get to think for perhaps 10 minutes or so, and in normal times, I would think about and reminisce about my pipes.... which *seemed* to result in me having fairly commonly dreams I would remember about pipes and pipe smoking.  Now-a-days, when I am very sleepy after five minutes of reading, I turn out the light, and I think I am probably in slumber-land in less than a minute.  I do not seem to get even a few moments to think before I am "out". Although I have no scientific evidence of this, I wonder if that change in falling asleep so rapidly is somehow changing my sleep pattern so I am not remembering any dreams.  

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I have been feeling rather ornery concerning the Supreme Court's foolish decision regarding the Environmental Protection Agency, but have not yet formulated a well-developed analysis of the situation.  I have made some starts at this, for I want to be sure to accurately incorporate my ideas into one of my Fall classes where EPA concerns are a facet of what I talk about and the class discusses.  I do need to spend time at this, but I have not yet made the time. 

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Even though I am becoming tired very quickly when reading at night, it is NOT because of what I am reading.  I was very happy to have found a new (to me, I buy my novels used, and often in paperback, used) novel by Michael Connelly... one of my favorite of several authors who writes detective fiction.  The book I am reading is "The Night Fire" and features the two police detectives of Harry Bosch and Rene Ballard.  I have always greatly enjoyed  Connelly's writing style, and perhaps about 10 years ago or so, I even heard him speak at a book signing (I do have one of his novels autographed from that event as well).  

PipeTobacco