I really needed to get some more cat food, in case Walter comes for a visit (he didn’t last night). And cookies. But talking even a short walk is risky in this heat, and especially for someone my age. I decided to wait until after sundown and the temperature dropped to at least 95. One of the perks of living where I do is there is a really good Giant Food store that’s not more than a 10-15 minute walk from my front door.

Out on the front porch it was still like an oven but not so intense that I didn’t think I could manage it. So I grabbed a small canvas shopping bag and headed out. All I needed was a few cans of cat food to tide me over until I could drive out to Cockeysville and the Pet Smart there. So I wouldn’t be carrying a lot back home.

What I hadn’t figured into this was that the intense heat of the last couple days had really baked the pavements and everything else in my environment, such that even if the sun wasn’t bearing down on me and the sky was getting dark, the heat was rising up at me from the ground all around me.

But I made it. I have food (and cookies). Probably not venturing out again until Monday when this heat wave is supposedly scheduled to end.

When the temperature gets into the triple digits the Mercedes gets its cover on until the temperature gets a little more reasonable. This is how it looked the first day of the heat wave yesterday. Oh…and the wildflowers I planted last spring. More about those later.

I bought the fitted cover, among other accessories, from the dealer when I bought the car. So this is the real fit for this specific model not a generic one, down to the little pocket for the hood ornament, and also for the satellite/GPS antenna on the roof. It’s actually pretty easy to just unroll and slide on and off. But even early this morning the heat was oppressive and I was exhausted just putting this on. I was going to take an extra early morning walk but it was already too hot. I tried again this morning but it was already 92 at 7:30.

I’m maintaining the bird bath and trying to keep drinking water out there for them. and I need to clean and put fresh humming bird juice in the feeder every night this heat wave goes on because at these temperatures that sugar water will start to ferment.

Walter came for a visit…

You caught the shoelace. Or did it catch you?

…and I gave him food and fresh water, and I was hoping he’d stay indoors at least until the evening, but after about a couple hours he poked his nose in the door which is the signal I’ve always accepted from visiting street cats they want back out, so I let him out. Walter is not a feral cat. Sadly we (the neighborhood) thinks he was just abandoned when his owners moved from the apartments a couple blocks over. So he’s friendly, if a bit playful and bitey. Probably just a couple years old. He won’t stay inside which is fine with me because I don’t want anymore pets after what happened to Claudia and the calico. Still, in this heat I would have let him stay inside my air conditioned house all day. But no, he wanted back out eventually. I have to trust he has places under some of the homes here where he can nap and escape the heat. None of those single family homes across the street have basements, just crawl spaces. I know one neighbor has put a little place for him under his porch.

The heat outside yesterday and now is…just amazing. Just topping off the bird bath in my front yard is as much outside as I want to be today. Any grocery shopping I might want to do (I’m going to at least need more cat food) will have to wait until after sundown.

I have two weather stations outside on my backyard deck, plus the temperature sensor inside the AC compressor unit in the backyard. Yesterday they were all reading 103 around 2 o:clock. It’s 101 now as I write this and it’s not even noon yet.

Every now and then when it breaks 100 I step outside onto my front porch just to see how it feels. The front porch is covered and mostly but not all in the shade all day long. It feels like looking into my oven to check on something I’m baking.

Yes I’ve set the central AC to 75. Additionally I’ve installed a small window unit in my upstairs bedroom, because it is difficult to keep the second floor in this little 1950s Baltimore rowhouses cool. At night I turn the central AC up and the window unit down. This is going to be an expensive month electricity wise. But I’ve always been on board with Heinlein’s saying that you should budget for the luxuries first. I budget for the utilities first. I’ll eat cold cut sandwiches and energy bars all month if I have to.

When I got up and checked the weather it looked like another stay inside day, but I thought I’d get out early and do a mile or two, so I got dressed quickly, made my coffee and opened the front door. Well…okay…today it really isn’t the heat, it really is the humidity.

It was brutal, but I stuck to the plan. Kind of. I did the zig-zag route around the new townhome development a couple blocks away and called it done.

My clothes were sticking to me by the time I got back inside, and I went to check my weather station display. Temperature was 80, the relative humidity was 98%, with a dew point of 79. Not all that hot compared to my Friday trip north, but still awful. You really appreciate the dehumidifying effect of air conditioning more on days like today.

A big storm front passed through last night and woke me up. Or maybe it was my usual insomnia. Weather station says we got almost half an inch of rain overnight, so at least I don’t have to go outside and water the plants.