No, today wasn't hot enough for me, it was much too hot for me*. How hot was it? Hot enough to sploot a squirrel, not something I recall having seen before in the Suburbs of Despair. The squirel was using the actual ground for cooling whilst I was using mini-split technology. So glad we installed those a few years back, so glad to be done with wrassling window aircon units.

I did venture outside long enough to pick some snowpeas, dump the compost, fetch the trash bins, and water the ninebark we'd planted in May. Those tasks could be done mostly in shade thanks to whoever planted oak trees along the south edge of the property however many decades ago. Their pollen makes for coughing and sneezing in the spring, and their leaves and acorns make a mess in the fall, but come summer all is forgiven. They're also a big part of why we have so much birdlife in the yard. Kin are growing, kin are singing.

In many (northern hemisphere) Catholic countries St. John's Day marks the start of summer (in a similar way and for similar reasons that not-quite solstice Xmas marks the start of winter). There'd be bonfires and festivals and all sorts of carrying on.** Every year my mother would warn us kids about the dangers of going swimming before then as it was still too cold and we'd risk getting cramps, and every year overheated me would ignore her. I somehow doubt those warnings are given anymore in this modern world.

Temps (if not tempers) should moderate in the next few days but I do wonder what mid-July will bring.

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* 38.8°C. I know that's not a big deal for many people but I really don't do well in heat plus humidity. Not sure if I have hypohidrosis but I definitely don't sweat enough to stay cool and instead fast-track towards heatstroke if I'm active in the summer sun. As a kid I spent as much of my summer outdoor time in the water as I could. Now I have aircon instead.

** "Obviously" there's nothing pagan about old-school Catholicism, nope not at all. I'm shocked, shocked that one might infer that.