It’s only been a tad over 100 all weekend. It is 88 at 8 pm. It is all relative, you know?

Up here, I experience the highs, the lows; the good, the bad, and the ugly – and on days like this, the ugly is me. I don’t tolerate heat well, but I do get used to it. I just haven’t acclimated, yet. Or, at least, that is what I tell myself.

I have been through summers where I PRAYED for 100 degrees. I’m not there, yet. I am praying for 90. The extremes up here can be vicious. I have recorded a high of 117 degrees and a low of 19 degrees. Different years. (don’t remember the years, but it is in the journals, calendars, and records I keep)

Was it only a week or two ago when I was thinking this had to be the “coolest” summer on record? Man, what was I thinking?

So, the brain shuts down in the heat – or at least mine does. I can do no creative thinking, and can barely carry on a conversation. Fortunately, my dogs don’t care, and if I DO need to carry on a conversation, I can drive down the coast and enter “the fog zone.” I know, those that live on the coast put on jackets and caps, and pray to see the sun. Me? I dress in as little as possible, and wait for the sun to go down. All this within a short little mile or so.

So, the next time you are in the coastal fog zone, think of it as nature’s air conditioning and be grateful. People in California’s Central Valley pay a lot of money to come cool off in our fog. And those of us in the mountains of Big Sur sometimes look down enviously, and sometimes come down to cool off. If this continues, maybe I’ll set up my office on the coast. The brain quits functioning in this heat.