on heat waves

To take things totally out of context, Margaret Cho's mother, who ran a "Variety store" in the Castro, was once looking at a book of porn and seemed shocked by what she was seeing. Margaret said, "But mother, you knew it was porn and you knew what kind." Her mother said "Yes, but it was so sudden. I was expecting a table of contents or something."

I think one of the reasons this heat wave hit us so hard was there was no leadup to it. We were all doing our New England things -- having fires in the morning, sleeping under down comforters at night -- and boom, upper 90s. We all just about melted. Allegedly, we have one more hot day and then it gets pleasant again. Hooray.

There are a few distinct pleasures associated with the heat.

Last night, we went to Erickson's Ice Cream after dinner, where about half the town turns out on a hot night. We park in giant semi circles as if worshipping the great frozen altar. This place won Best in Boston a few years ago, and deservedly so. It's not as famous as some of our other local stands; perhaps that's because there's no minigolf or petting zoo, just ice cream, a few hot dogs, and free dog treats. They no longer have cows but they do still make their own ice cream in a little shed next to the place where you buy it. And the owners live on the other side of the shed. Despite the yumminess of the homemade stuff, we usually try to restrain ourselves. Last night, we got some nicely cooling sherbet freezes, which did put a pleasant chill on our insides.

Another thing I like doing on a hot night is to take a shower before bed. I'm usually a shower-when-I-get-up kind of a gal but on hot nights, a late shower washes the day's stickiness off and gets me a little cooled down. Sometimes I even catch a slight breeze through our skylight.

And then, most nights, it cools down enough for me to consider putting a blanket on toward morning. The night before last, that never happened. Last night, it got cool enough for me to consider the thought, but I just hunkered under my sheet and felt almost cold. Tonight may be the night.