transportation alternatives
It have been very warm here for a few days, leading to the realization on the part of any number of people that a heat wave is in fact a thing. Perhaps it is an annual realization. The worst part for me is that I can't hear the words without thinking of a rather bad song. I guess they can't all be winners, even for Irving Berlin. En tout cas: Harvey and I have been hanging out at home and doing what we can to manage our heat exposure, which is mostly accomplished by heading out for expeditions on the bike.
It seems counter-intuitive, certainly, to choose a human-powered mode of transportation when the news outlets are broadcasting heat advisories and things, and we do get some odd looks from motorists. But a little bit of driving in the car today (we had to take Rascal to somewhere he could swim) showed us that, in today's weather at any rate, biking is actually cooler than driving. At least, than driving in my car with it's regrettably inefficient air-conditioning. The movement of the bike even at low speed creates a wonderful cooling breeze, an effect that isn't replicated by the much faster air around the car: not enough of it gets in, not nearly enough to counteract the effects of sitting inside a metal-and-glass box. The only thing to be careful of is going too fast. Start to work too hard, of course, and that breeze doesn't have a chance of dissipating the heat that'll quickly build up. Now if only I could find a way of dissipating the huge clouds of smugness that envelop me after I travel anywhere by bicycle...