Gratuitous Heat Wave Kvetching

One more lousy day of this miserable weather and then it's supposed to break. Hope I can last that long - I got in about an hour ago and my lungs still hurt from breathing hot air soup.

It may just be my parboiled imagination, but I've been musing on the different effects of cold and hot weather on people, especially on my fellow commuters.

In the middle of winter, when it's well below freezing and there's a howling north wind, people just bundle up and turn in on themselves. As you make your way up and down the streets, you feel this sense of isolation, even when there are a lot of other people about.

Not now, though. The heat brings our worst qualities right up to the surface, where we almost can't help directing them at those around us. The rude get that much ruder. The angry get that much angrier. The clueless get that much cluelesser.

And let's not forget the smell of hot and sweaty humanity.

Yesterday afternoon, I dragged myself into the Metro only to discover that the air-conditioning in my (jampacked) car wasn't working properly. I had a window seat and my book and, for once, a 300 pound touron was not sitting next to and on top of me. Nevertheless, we hadn't gone two stops before I was having fantasies of running amok with a tomahawk.

As I say, one more lousy day of this and then the temperature is supposed to drop back down to the upper 80's. Aaaaaand, I just checked the forecast for when I arrive in Maine next week. High in the lower 70's.

That's something worth hanging on for.