The GeekHiker

(Beef non-eaters may look away from this one.  Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.)

One of the special joys of living in LA is the fact that the illusion (the weather is perfect all the time) doesn’t quite mesh with the reality (at times it gets really, really hot).

Homebuilders for decades have taken advantage of the illusion and built places such as mine: no a/c, no insulation, no central heat.

Now, don’t get me wrong here.  I grew up in the central valley, home of 100+ degree summers, so it’s not like I’m not used to hot summers.

When I was a kid, the schools weren’t air-conditioned.  Teachers simply opened the windows, turned on whatever fans they could scrounge up, screamed above the fans, and watched the kids doze off from the heat.

Needless to say, May in Sacramento wasn’t particularly conducive to “learning”.

The worst of this was jr. high, where the dress code did not allow boys to wear shorts.  (It wasn’t until I was much older and more sarcastic that the fact that the dress code didn’t say a damn thing about kilts occur to me).

The reasons for this were always pretty vague, something about girls in shorts showing legs being a distraction or something like that.  ‘Cuz, you know, melting in your seat while sweat pours down your legs and pools on the floor isn’t a distraction at all.

And wouldn’t ya know it?  A quick web-search and I found that now the dress code at that school allows shorts.  Geez, for once in my life, things really were worse when I was growing up.

But at least the parent’s house had air conditioning.  And that magical marble tile in the entryway that cooled the feet no matter what the temperature.

The basic idea here being that, even in the dregs of summer, you could get away from the heat, at least a little bit.

Here, no such luck.  It’s 11:00 am and already 85 inside the house.  Bleh.

Not that there’s anyplace to go, really, either.

The beaches, this being a holiday weekend and all, will be insane (though I may try to sneak in a bike ride early, early Monday).  Driving out to the Santa Monica’s in said insane beach traffic to hike is also a nightmare proposition.  And the hot weather is forming thunderheads over the Angeles, and the idea of being caught in a sudden downpour/hail storm/lightning storm is none to appealing.

Nope, this is a hot holiday weekend to stay home and, well, try to stay cool.

Luckily, I have cool (temperature-wise) leftovers for lunch: the taco salad I made last night.  Y’all enjoyed the pic of the sandwich so much, I thought I’d snap one of this too:

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to take said leftover salad, grab a book and my camp chair, head over to the park and find the shade of a nice tree for lunch…