Today
Today, 7/26/09
Well, I’m learning the secret to sleeping enough in this heat – eye mask and ear plugs. I turn the air conditioning off about midnight, the fan’s been going since noon, and that continues until about 6 a.m., aimed at my almost-bare and unblanketed body. So, even though I’m in the sleep cycle that keeps me up until 2 a.m. or more, I still get a full night’s sleep and can actually function the next day. Of course, those looong afternoon naps (with the AC on) probably help.
A few days ago I wrote a post bemoaning the too-much heat in the Summer here in the Rogue Valley, and asked for suggestions about where I might move to escape. No one reads this Weblog (yet!) so no suggestions were forthcoming. However, that very night I accidentally watched a weather channel and got An Answer, possibly The Answer. The Oregon Coast!!! That day it was about 95 here in Ashland, and 65 or so on the coastal area closest to us. That doesn’t mean it’s close, one still has to go over the mountains and through the redwoods to get there. But once you’re there, you’re There!
Have you been to the Oregon Coast? It is Nature’s magnificence unparalleled in my experience, and I have driven through the northern Rockies several times and hiked extensively in Utah’s Arches and Canyonlands National Park(s). All of that was wonderful and incredibly scarey – but the Oregon Coast!!!
The Coast is beautiful beyond description – gorgeous, seductive, almost too alive. Lucky girl that I am, I have had the opportunity to drive (slowly) up and down the Coast twice and selected bits more times than that.
The thought of living somewhere there is more than a little intimidating. I AM considering it, especially as this 100 degree weather is continuing and continuing.
(Here’s a Silly Aside: In the Long Ago, the typewriter keyboard included a key with the degree sign; it was somewhere on the upper left. Perhaps the @ sign has superceded it, or maybe the upper 6 which now gives us a ^. What’s that upward bound arrow for? Do you use it? Do you know anyone who uses it? I didn’t even know it was there until just now, looking for where the degree sign might have been.)