So Hot.

The airport is reporting 99 degrees. The Weather Channel is reporting 99. The thermometer here at ANYLF heat wave headquarters, in the shade of the front porch, says 98. It hasn't rained in something like twenty days. I was going to hang trim on the building's gable end at seven or eight p.m., but it's still supposed to be in the mid-nineties by then, so never mind. The only thing possible here is to mix some lemon and gin and fizzy water and try not to move or talk or type too much. There's a book, delivered via UPS, sitting on my front porch. I want to read it. I just don't know if I can bring myself to go out there and get it.

My brother, who lives in Farmville, VA, called this afternoon to report triple digits, and to ask if I remembered last week, when it had been in the fifties in the mornings. I said I did. He wanted to know if it was some kind of cruel joke. Cruel, I said, seemed a little too calm an assessment.