What horrible weather! On Saturday, it was near record heat. We made our usual Saturday trip to the farmer's market, but by the time we'd reached it, we were already overheating. Sweat was dripping in my eyes and when we sat down for moment, you could see beads of sweat all over Daniel's face. We didn't stay long and, after a short stop at the library, we headed home. Once we got in, we retreated to the air conditioned rooms and mostly didn't come out. I had picked up a book at the library, which kept me occupied for the rest of the morning -- another Raymond Feist book. They're not great literature, but I find them thoroughly enjoyable. Unfortunately, they go all too fast.
On Sunday, we planned to take advantage of the tax holiday. Alisa has needed a new battery for her powerbook, so we planned to stop by an Apple store, get a battery and have someone at the "genius bar" see if they had any suggestions for making her flaky airport card work better. When we got there it was absolutely packed and we found (1) they don't carry batteries for tibooks and (2) the genius bar was closed for the tax holiday. It was interesting that the rest of the mall looked to be doing a regular trade while the Apple store had dozens of extra people helping out, but still looked like it was getting overwhelmed. They had at least 5 lines checking people out and each line had 15-20 people. Incredible. Since our trip was a complete waste, we decided to console ourselves by stopping for Indian food on the way home.
On the way back, we ran through some of the strongest thunderstorms I've ever seen. At one point, the wind was blowing so strongly across the road that the rain ran sideways across the windshield. There were almost constant lightning flashes and thunder crashes. Hail was cracking on the windshield and rattling over the whole car. We came through just fine, but it was very impressive to be reminded how we always exist at the whim of nature, which can bat us away with a careless gust of wind or stroke of lightning.
StevenBrewer