Hot as Hell

I think it got up around 97 in some places in the South Bay. Fortunately it's not very humid, so the heat is bearable. Also fortunately, my apartment is very well insulated, so it stays fairly cool through much of the day. Unfortunately, my apartment is very well insulated so it takes quite a while to cool off at night. And, of course, we're only a week away from the longest day of the year, so there's not so much time for it to cool off.

But, at least even with this brutal heat, things cool off to a comfortable 60-65 degrees at night. That's one nice thing about the area; in the Midwest or Northeast it could be brutally hot (and humid!) all night.

Well, at least work is air conditioned. It's supposed to stay in the 90s through Thursday and then cool off on Friday. But remember, I never trust Bay Area forecasts more than two days ahead of time...

I hope it'll cool off, though, because my friend Karen is coming to town for a conference, and is going to spend a night in my apartment.

I had a revelation either yesterday or today, I forget which. It's a revelation that made me think, "duhhh!" when I had it, but apparently it hasn't been obvious to me.

It's this: Moving to a new part of the country is more than just a change in locale, a change of apartment, and a change of job; it's a change of lifestyle. Expecting to be able to maintain the same sort of laid-back lifestyle I had in Madison, walking everywhere, biking most of those places I couldn't walk, feeling a sense of community, it's just something which isn't available here in most places. And that expecting that things would be basically the same only elsewhere was not something I was prepared for and should not have expected.

I've been feeling more content with where I am lately. A bit more reconciled to the driving I have to do to see people. Comfortable that I'm not going to be here forever (I do want to move to a place with more of a sense of community, and somewhere where I can own a house, or at least a nice condo), but that staying here for a few years is okay.

Like I said, kind of a "duh!" revelation. I think some of it comes from going to Madison and realizing that even if I feel like I have problems in California, I also had problems in Madison, and some of them were the same problems. So in many ways I've basically moved laterally, not backwards. This isn't where I ultimately want to end up, but it's okay for now. And I'm young enough to be able to go do other stuff when I want to.

Spies had been wedged since yesterday afternoon. Ceej says someone needs to get physical access to the box to reboot it, and that this will become easier in a few days when the machine is moved. So a few of my entries are late, and if you've sent me e-mail today it's somewhat possible I didn't receive it, although I did receive an awful lot.