What are you doing today?

Reading this thread while sitting out on my deck at around 10:45 PM with a very pleasant temperature of 76° -- doors and windows open, it is lovely! I have A/C and I use that when necessary but really love it when I can just have doors and windows open instead, enjoy fresh air......
 
Scepticalscribe said:
@Apple fanboy is perfectly right; in Blighty one only needs A/C maybe - at a maximum, and even then, not every year - 10 days a year (and that is mainly in the south, south east and south west, and the southern midlands).

Now, I have lived & worked in places, (the Caucasus, central Asia, east Africa) where A/C was a necessity, but this hot spell is not expected to last more than another week (or so the current forecast appears to suggest).
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That may be today, but what about tomorrow? We’re seeing how much of an effect climate change is having over here with the Northwest - traditionally arguably cooler than the UK most of the time getting hit but firestarter type heat.
 
Clix Pix said:
Reading this thread while sitting out on my deck at around 10:45 PM with a very pleasant temperature of 76° -- doors and windows open, it is lovely! I have A/C and I use that when necessary but really love it when I can just have doors and windows open instead, enjoy fresh air......
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Even at night here it can get awfully muggy.
 
On Monday, I really enjoyed looking at the low-contrast shadow my meat sack projected onto all the orange sunlight hitting the pavement at four in the afternoon, some five hours prior to sunset. The nearest major wildfires are at least a thousand kilometres away.

The air quality health index of “Unhealthy” in the PM2.5 range, coupled with that indescribably dry-musty-stale odour of the breathing air and public health advisories warning us not to engage in aerobic exercise, even if one is in in tip-top shape, really brought home that retro-memory of the good new days of 2056 when, even during a mid-wintertime polar vortex and a stiff northern wind of about +5°C (lowering wind chills to -4°C), the AQHI never gets lower than 150 (”Unhealthy”) and the weaksauce sunlight at noon is the hue of a blood orange.

Ah yes, a preview of the good new times ahead.
 
Looking at a bird riding the thermals, flying in a state of relaxed glee and pure pleasure; not something you often see in this part of the world, as our teperatures don't normally allow for that sort of thing.

And sipping a cup (Le Creuset mug) of coffee. (Colombian).
 
I've found if you're a little bit picky about what you choose, most small stuff is pretty good. I'd be a bit more picky with furniture (i.e. try to avoid stuff made from large amounts of particle board), but they've definitely cornered a market for household stuff that is both (mostly) reasonably priced, but also customisable enough to make it feel like 'yours'.


Enjoy!
 
I thoroughly enjoyed IKEA. We had lunch there and while my mother had her Swedish meatballs, I got the plant balls, which were excellent. I picked up a variety of small things that I could throw in my suitcase, like a pair of small tongs, a USB C/USB cable, an ice cream scoop, and some plastic bags.

After IKEA I spent about 40 minutes wandering Buccee’s while Mum went to see her cardiologist. Shortly before she was done, DT appeared, so when we left Buccee’s, we headed to a cute little coffee shop/bar and hung out with him for a while. We had a terrific time.
 
Yesterday, although a blistering, scorchng day, yes, I spent a surprising amount of it watching videos of the impossibly elegant, erudite, interesting, gifted, and wonderfully knowlegeable Brandon Acker discussing (and playing) various antique instruments, and other videos of him playing music from that era.

I had not known that he started out playing heavy metal, and only discovered antique instruments and antique music in college via a study of classical guitar; as @lizkat would say, "go figure". A fascinating journey.

The instruments included (most had separate videos, but, for those who love this sort of stuff, and I do, and adore Baroque music, which I also do, and thrill to history - yes, tick that box, as well, the video of Brandon Acker with Rob Scallon on the history of the guitar was brilliant; I love watching a video where I learn stuff I hadn't known before), Renaissance guitar, Baroque guitar, Renaissance lute, Baroque lute, Harpischord, oud, viola da gamba, and the wonderful theorbo, an instrument - those bass notes - that I have quite lost my heart to.
 
Okay: That was yesterday.

Today, I am awaiting the delivery of an order of coffee.

And yes, there will be more Baroque music.

I have found some fans that I bought for my mother three years ago, during our last really warm spell; one may be pressed into service in my study today, - it works, I checked - as the internal thermometer outside my study door now reads 25 C (77F), which, even for my passionately heat loving self, is perhaps excessive indoors, especially this early in the day.

A few years ago, I recall visiting Puntland (a semi-autonomous region of Somalia), where I stayed in our regional HQ - a visit where we were being briefed (and delivering briefings) plus attending meetings with local interlocutors and various (self-styled) local VIPs; anyway, this was a large, spacious, high-ceilinged, Italianate villa, equipped with heavy, solid, old, furniture, comfortable, deep, armchairs, mosquito nets like tents over capacious beds, and those glorious - large - overhead fans - it was like a scene from between the two world wars, in someplace like Cairo, or the setting of a Somerset Maugham novel, or, Out of Africa, or The English Patient, or the video for the classic (and splendid) Stranglers song, Golden Brown, anyway, it felt extraordinarily out of time.
 
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Still too hot for me here. After dinner (pasta and tuna salad), I had a raspberry jelly that Mrs AFB made. Yum.
Unfortunately there is not a breath of air out there. So windows open or closed make no difference. I’ll be glad when this cools down.
Work was difficult. Spent quite a bit of the day trying to help a colleague who’s struggling with mental health. Doesn’t help me with my work load of course.
 
Apple fanboy said:
I’ve never drunk less tea. Just too hot for that. Enjoy your coffee.
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Well, the coffee order was simply because I was in danger of running out of coffee, in fact, had run out, and had opened my emergency supply (which I must now re-stock); to be honest, it had nothing to do with the weather.

And, bizarrely, occasionally, I kind of like tea sometimes (in the late evening) when the weather is really good.
 
Apple fanboy said:
Still too hot for me here. After dinner (pasta and tuna salad), I had a raspberry jelly that Mrs AFB made. Yum.
Unfortunately there is not a breath of air out there. So windows open or closed make no difference. I’ll be glad when this cools down.
Work was difficult. Spent quite a bit of the day trying to help a colleague who’s struggling with mental health. Doesn’t help me with my work load of course.
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Homemade raspberry jelly?

Yum.
 
Another day in a south facing office with a full glass wall and no AC. It was 33C yesterday in there and I can’t wait to sweat it out all day again today [emoji1305]
 
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