It's been so hot this is probably going to be the new hottest summer in Japanese weather history; the previous record was 2010. Between last Friday and yesterday, I anticipated, counter to all information, it can't get worse, and I only need to motivate myself to work, but I've been wrong. Today we are expecting the fifth or sixth day in a row of "extreme heat", somewhere around the 35C line. The grape-growing parts of Yamanashi Pref not too far from Mt Fuji has had over 39C two or three days in a row.
I've been drinking endless glasses of barley tea, (a refreshing Japanese summer drink, I think they drink this in Korea, too, and they kindly gave us a glass sometime in the last 2000 years?) Even our tap water is lukewarm even in the dead of night.
For the last two days I've turned on the air conditioner on so I can keep my room just below 30C, but today I've turned it low enough so I don't sweat if I more or less stay still, to get a wee reprieve physically and regain composure.
* * * * *
That's as far as I got yesterday, in something like five goes. Whereas previously the mind was willing but not the body, yesterday Mom and I both had it and we couldn't function, so we vegetated.
I couldn't sleep well either so I woke up grumpy this morning but Mom, bless her, woke up refreshed and energized, and it seems to me that today is the first day she is well, in her old way, since Dad died; not sarcastic, not forced, just matter-of-fact. (Though she'd most definitely tell you I'm so grumpy and bossy all the time she's been well before but I refuse to recognize it. Which is true, too. Hee hee.)
Anyway, she's well, in the way she's usually been, and that forced me to be, in a short few minutes, well again.
One of Dad's past students and his wife came for a visit yesterday, and another rang in the evening to ask if he could come; Mom declined, for the first time, saying it's too hot for her to receive visitors. This morning she declared, "Dad's been gone for over two months; it's time his business stopped butting into my business!"
I know her, and my, mood will continue to go up and down, but this is most definitely a good change. So, yay, Mom.
1 comment:
I lost Maria's comment in haste. She backs me up, saying, "As i just transited through Tokyo both ways, I was surprised of how hot it was. But lovely lush green as well." She's back in cool Nelson, where I wish I were just now.
It's going to be another hot week here, and humid, with intermittent rain just in case the humidity doesn't get high enough. Crikey... But I understand, for e.g., Vienna has had near-40C temps, so in light of that we're getting off lightly.
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