Acclimated

Every region has their own approach to weather. In Minnesota, as I recall, the weather is something you always talk about in polite conversation, however, no one makes a big deal about it. Weather nonchalance in the face of pretty regular weather extremes. Same with Arizona. It is hot as the face of the sun there, but people pretty much go about their business. Here in the Pacific Northwest, there are two weather-related social patterns. One is that you must affect that you prefer those cloudy days of endless drizzle (OK, maybe some of them do, how do I know?) to any other kind of weather. Two, whenever the weather goes to any extreme whatsoever, it must TAKE OVER YOUR LIFE COMPLETELY.

I think I can say with relative certainty that we finally really fit in here- in the weather spirit of the Northwest, this absolutely insane heatwave has ruled our lives for the entire week. The girls have embraced the new policy of brushing their teeth during a cool-down shower. Tonight when I told Muriel it was tooth brushing time, she said, "I want to spit on the floor!" The floor of the bathtub, but you can see why the born rebel appreciates this approach. We have been camping out in the basement for three nights- it started out about fifteen degrees cooler than the main floor, but now it's probably only about an eight degree spread. We have been trying to avoid cooking, moving the dog downstairs during the day, wearing only a diaper to bed (ok, that's Muriel too). Every little bit helps.

Tonight we went for dinner to the local crazy mall food court that we frequent, because we are all class all the time. Turns out it was not such an original idea. Everyone on the Eastside was trying to stay cool at the mall. Under normal circumstances, this mall is already like the Mos Eisley Cantina. Every species, humanoid and otherwise, hangs out at this mall and throws down some mah jong and gives crochet lessons and plays Magic: The Gathering. But throw a 102 degree evening into the mix, and the joint really jumps.

Also: because the weather here only gets really interesting in one direction or the other for about two weeks out of the year, we are ill equipped. So not only is the mall mobbed with people, it is mobbed with people attempting to dress for the searing heat of a border town when for most of the year they wear their fleece vest or the long sleeve polo shirt they got when their software release finally wrapped up. A sight to behold, is all I'm saying. The girls had penne pomodoro, Jim had the halibut bento box, I had the Italian chop chop. We sat and watched the refugees drifting past, peering at everyone's table as is the custom at this establishment, to see what they might want to order next time.

You know in the movies when there is a burst of ominous music or chase music or comic music, and the camera pans and there is an actual group of musicians there? Ha! We had the perfect soundtrack for the whimsically surreal, because of course the performer at the stage was an accordian player. We got Girl from Ipanema and this one tango we like, and other than that, a lot of songs that made you feel like any minute a troupe of mimes was going to come down from the ceiling on trapezes and infiltrate the crowd. We took the girls and two quarters to the carousel, but even that was mobbed, and I could see from the look on the faces of parents that had gotten there after us that they were prepared to pretend they had gotten there first.

We changed course to the ice cream place, a chain where ice cream is not good enough and must be enhanced with other sorts of dessert items. (Shout out to my MN homies- I miss the St. Paul Creamery like mad. Can't imagine the line you would have if you had the weather we have.) The stress of their deployment was beginning to tell on the ladies behind the counter, who were trying to direct the traffic through gritted teeth. Naomi stuck to her pattern of ordering based on color (watermelon sorbet, anyone?), and I was intimidated by the pissed off ice cream scooper into ordering a medium (which was gigantic!) mint chocolate something. Mmmm minty.

Home, toothbrushing in the shower, bed in the basement, and as the grownups sat out on the patio, listening to that guy a few houses down who shouts for HOURS on end (what is he shouting about?)... a sensation of coolness in the air! Awesome. Tomorrow it is supposed to only get to around 86, which is cooler than the inside of our house has been this week. We can go back to daydreaming about drizzle, waiting for the next big weather emergency to rock our world.