Still, by tomorrow morning it might have dropped to the low 20s. Maybe. but not in the city, I wouldn't imagine. Just in time to heat up again :)
Fashions - always questionable - are becoming truly hysterical. Roads still melting. Railway lines buckling. Tempers fraying. Lots of people drowning.
The dogs are loving the ice-sticks, though. I've promised Sherlock I'll get some ice-lollies on the go in the freezer tonight, too. And we've given the degus some ice cubes to play with too.
Sherlock really wanted to go to a watery park tonight, but it's way out of town, so he's going to have to wait.
I'm gearing up to see Mum at the weekend. Sherlock doesn't want to. I've tried to sweeten the general deal with promises of paddling pools. I'm not sure he's buying it.
I've been at a horrible crime scene most of the day. House fire, so that sort of smell that gets right into you throat. We've all been sweating buckets, which isn't very nice in our paper suits. Sticky.
Very happy to get home to discover John, Sherlock and Mycroft had bought us a huge watermelon. Like this one:
But, you know, less...ferocious. More edible.
I've sort of lost my mind today. I don't know what else I was going to talk about.
Keep hearing this, so have it.
One of our forensic techs came in today. She's just had a baby. 12 days old, he is. Looking like a small cooked lobster. He was very yawny and wriggly and scrunched.
103 comments:
I'd really not like to have a new baby in this heat but yay cute baby :-)
Good luck with your mum at weekend, and with keeping Sherlock dry for at least some of the time this summer ;-)
She said he was better out than in! But must be really hard to keep them cool enough when they're that small. And in a huge nappy, too!
I think Sherlock is just beginning to tip over into hot and stroppy - a state the rest of London has been in for a week now!
He has enough hair to make it worthwhile to soak his head in lukewarm water. (I've been known to do that during tai chi workouts--just pop into the ladies, stick my head over the sink, and pour. :) But you need to have a towel to squeeze out the drips!)
keeping babies cool enough or warm enough is always a worry but I'm struggling with the heat now so I'd hate to think what it would be like at full term!!
My eldest drank 1.5 litres of water between the end of school and when she finally went to bed!! I think I might be woken a lot in the night ;-)
he's not so bad now, just tired and sort of...floppy. But I think school's just becoming a long drawn out too-hot experience for these last few days. He just wants the holidays to arrive. And school to be less hot. And less stupid. And people to be less stupid. So he tells me, from his position on the floor.
I totally sympathize. (We're in the middle of a heat wave here, too. Ugh.)
I have to admit that this Australian thinks shutting down for a mere 32 in the daytime is hilarious!
But then I remember when the temp in Perth (The Australian one, not the Scottish one) got as low as 0degC and the headline in the local paper was 2" high. Apparently many people sent the front page to their English relatives...
shutting down?
I'd rather be 5 below, or in some proper heat, in Italy. Nice dry heat. Bit of breeze with it.
Dry heat can be nice.
(I think I'm a desert dweller at heart--I was bounding all over israel at 38+ with no problem, except at Ein Gedi, which is humid. And deserts cool off a lot at night!)
Admittedly I can't stand much North of the NSW/Qld border in the summer. Sydney humidity is bad enough, Brisbane (or worse: Darwin), are not fit for human beings.
But even the dry heat of Perth is bad after the fourth 40deg+ day.
in Adelaide last year the heat wave was so hot and prolonged that the buses were taken off the road because the roads and tyres were so hot they were both melting...
The trains had already shut down so the government pleaded for people to stay home. Not just because the roads were congested but because it spread the electricity demand over more of an area.
It isn't as humid as further north but it is in a gulf so no sea breeze and very little cooler at night.
our roads are melting at the mo. clearly the wrong type of roads.
I'd rather have the humidity than desert dryness...though that's certainly not the popular opinion at the moment!
Well...there are deserts, and then there are deserts. Phoenix isn't Kabul, and things like air conditioning and swimming pools do make a difference! And so do individual ... Is "metabolisms" the right word?
I live in a desert, and it's currently been between 100 and 105 the past few days. It's a dry heat, though, so it doesn't bother me as much.
I don't handle humidity at all well, though. I tend to go down like a lead balloon.
Have you tried to fry an egg on the pavement yet? I always enjoyed doing that and seeing how long it took to cook.
I don't handle humidity at all well, though. I tend to go down like a lead balloon.
^^This!
Pip, did you see this story about the Death Valley Park Service asking people not to fry eggs on the sidewarlks? (Especially without skillets!)
I had not seen that! Fun as it is to watch an egg fry without a frying pan, I wish people would clean up their own mess.
My poor tomato plant isn't liking this heat very much, but my pepper plant seems to love it!
I just thought it was a case of hoist by their own petard, (and kinda funny :)) but you are exactly correct, they really should!
I have a spray bottle that I fill with water in summer, so I can slob and the couch and spray myself in the face when I'm too hot. I saw it last night, and it made me think of you poor lot. I hate the heat, and adore winter.
Not this winter, though! It is 21 damn degrees outside, middle of winter and you don't even need a cardy! I was standing outside in my shirtsleeves, crankily bemoaning the complete lack of cold. (Not that it ever gets cold enough in Melbourne for my liking!) Looks like the only winter I'll get this year is the 4 weeks I spent in England in Feb/March! Loved it :)
Oh, I forgot - I walk past a motorcycle shop every day on the way to work. This bike always makes me think of Sherlock - although I'm not so sure about the bright green, don't think it matches the name!
Last night, putting Sherlock to bed, I said something like 'It's not as hot as 2006. Remember that?' And got a patented Sherlock Glare (just like a NannyJohn glare, but smaller).
And then realised he was under a year old. Although sometimes he does claim to remember stuff from when he was in the womb, I think.
its amazing how kids can make you feel old with just a look isn't it!
how's work going today? any cooler?
Not much. But a bit better. Sherlock was all grumpy this morning. John wasn't much better ;).
Do you at least have a forecast end to your heat wave? (We're supposed to finally get out of the 90s on Sunday--I'm hanging on to that!)
no. another week or so, they say, for us down South. But I don't think anyone's very sure.
Lots of people looking to America, for 'cool refuges' and drinking water being available, and outdoor pools etc. and other way of keeping cool they say we should have, and don't. But it'll all be forgotten as soon as it reverts to drizzle and grey skies again.
Yeah, those cooling centers are literally life centers in some cities--New York and Chicago, for example, had a lot more deaths each heat wave without them (and that's just in the northern states!). But of course you usually don't get temps quite so high as we do, so I guess (especially when it's not hot and no one is clamoring for them) the government doesn't see that it pays to build and maintain them.
I remember a heat wave one year when there weren't cooling centers, and Chicago had a death toll in the triple digits.
I'm glad we have them, yet I mourn the idea of neighbors looking after neighbors.
Think we're supposed to get out of the 90s tomorrow, so maybe that's the wave that's headed your way, RR.
Got my fingers crossed for it, kestrel--we're supposed to reach 98F today and tomorrow, and 91 on Saturday...but then the 80s, pleasepleaseplease! It will be nice to see some nighttime temps in the upper 60s, it hasn't gotten much below 80 this week.
Well I just had a dip in the Thames. Unplanned.
Eeewww. You OK?
Yikes! Are you okay? What happened?
That sounds worse than being hot Greg!!
Are you all right? What happened?
Suspect decided to make a swim for it. Turns out he was a very bad swimmer. We radiod up the river police but then it seemed like he wouldn't survive that long.
Oddly enough he didn't really want to be rescued by me
I'm okay. Hope I didn't swallow too much. And my suit smells bad.
That sounds... awful. Sorry, love.
... Was the water cool at least?
Cool, yeah. It was... Well, not my first choice for a swim. Bit diesel-y, bit smelly. Not that bad.bchanged out of my shirt and trousers, but only have my running gear. Not ideal for going commando in... And really quite smelly from my run the other night.
He is saying I tried to drown him.
Idiot. (The suspect, not you.)
I guess it's too late in the day to stop by home for a change?
I can bring you a change of clothes if you're not going to get away any time soon? Sherlock just asked if he could jump in the river as well.
That'd be great actually. Just shorts and a t shirt, not a suit. I'm not going anywhere now.
Sherlock - no.
Should be there shortly, I'll text you and you can come down? I've got Sherlock too.
Gang - John 'forgetting' to bring me boxers. On purpose, or, as he claims, genuine mistake?
I would never! Especially when you're just going to be at work, which seems like a serious waste of a boxerless state.
If you weren't going to have the boys at home when you got back I'd say it was likely he was making sure you were ready when you got home but given the circumstances I think he just forgot ;-)
I'll be home soon enough. Need someone to shower with to get all the river weed off me.
Especially when you're just going to be at work, which seems like a serious waste of a boxerless state.
John makes a good point--I buy his reasoning. :)
L - watch it, Mrs H will volunteer!
..mrs H did volunteer.
Now trying to do things like pack, ready ourselves for making t shirts, wash exceptionally horrible clothing.
Try to take it a little easy, maybe? I mean, there isn't much good for you in the Thames.
(Or the Hudson, for that matter, no matter what they say about the safety of swimming in it--I can SEE the Hudson, I don't believe it's safe for a minute. :))
you sound seriously busy tonight Greg, I hope you've calmed down a bit now its getting close to bedtime :-)
Just noticed that the fountains are back on Southbank. Apparently only weren't there last year because of the drought.
Sherlock will be happy. (but not that we're going away for the weekend...)
I'm fine. yes, busy. Better than sitting still and psyching myself out about any weird symptoms I'm imagining from my swim!
Whatever works!
Did you get some tiny baby t-shirts to decorate? :)
Yeah, well, a little sort of...jacket. And a baby grow.
Sherlock thought sharks, spiders and ninjas would be best as decoration.
:D
Well, if they were CUTE sharks, spiders, and ninjas it could work! You know, with bows and pink and like that.
I'm thinking guitars and motorbikes, personally. So she knows who they're from!
That would actually be very sweet. Go with it!
Have a great last day of term, to all those to whom it applies. And if you decide to travel this afternoon please do not be on the road when I'm on my way home ;)
Afraid we might be travelling at exactly the wrong time, and the wrong direction...
Currently having lots of fun making invites. Somehow Mycroft is still clean. John definitely isn't, but he's blaming me!
why would he blame you Greg? I'm sure you are being perfectly behaved and not making any mess at all ;-)
Anonybob, if you believe that ...
AnonyBob - exactly!
off to not make a mess at school now, being a responsible adult overseeing small children.
Not, as Mycroft suggests, being an irresponsible adult, overseen by small children. (he. sensibly, is staying well out of it. Always said he was a clever boy.)
John, you have a fingerprint on your earlobe. And I do hope you don't see this until we've been at school a bit.
Hope you all have a great day making lots of things and getting even more messy!
This is a bit off topic, but just thought you might find it kind of interesting. John posted about an experiment that involved pitch a while back, and how everyone was waiting for it to drop. And how it's been ongoing for 83 years. Well, apparently, the pitch has dropped! Here's a link if you would like to see it.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/the-3-most-exciting-words-in-science-right-now-the-pitch-dropped/277919/
Creativity sometimes involves mess!
Neat, pip, I had forgotten about that! (It looks more like it broke off than it dripped, in that gif...fascinating.)
have fun at school, I'm sure the teachers will keep you on track Greg ;-)
It was really fun, everyone outside, happy. Mrs N was going around giving everyone informal reports on their kid, as well as us having a short written one. My school was never like this!
That sounds really lovely!
How did your jacket and baby grow come out? :)
What did your report say, Sherlock? And how does your t-shirt look?
Lestrade's in the naughty seat. His stupid phone won't let me put my name. He said a bad word about rubberneckers and his phone made that say rubber knickers and John said that figured.
SHERLOCK
Sherlock, was there an accident or something--to attract the rubberneckers that Lestrade said a bad word about? Are you all okay?
(Also, HA!, John. :))
There was a traffic jam for ages and then in the end it was just because stupid people were looking at an accident that wasn't even big on the other side of the road and no other reason and it's hot and boring.
SHERLOCK
Oh, I see. I think I would have said a bad word about rubber-neckers, too. I have never understood why people have to slow down and look, and make a big mess for everyone else. :(
You got an award today, right? That's exciting! What was it for?
YES
I got a platinum award because I've done better than I even had to in everything like reading and maths and writing and also I was helpful and also I didn't have to go to the thinking corner more than three times all year. And only five of us got platinum and I even knew it was better than gold because John and Lestrade picked it for their rings and it cost more so it's better.
SHERLOCK
Rubber knickers sound hot.
The wrong kind of hot.
YAY YAY YAY!!!!
And especially congratulations on the helpful and hardly having to go to the thinking corner at all (because three times in a whole year is almost nothing, I'd say), because that is HARD, so really excellent, I'm truly impressed!
And yep, platinum is best. :)
Something costing more does not necessarily mean it is better, Sherlock. It may be something which is more rare, or perhaps more difficult to extract.
Almost certainly the latter, in your case.
Mycroft
Heh, Mycroft. *cough*
When it comes to awards, the one you really earned is best! And Sherlock really earned his, so it is best.
At lease you're past the rubbernecking, hopefully the roads have cleared up for you. And I hope it cools down for you lot, too.
How did the t-shirts come out, Sherlock?
Shut up you SMELL
Sherlock
Don't be so childish.
Mycroft
...
I take it that it has not yet cooled down, then...
T-shirts, Sherlock? Which molecular structure(s) did you put on yours--or did you change your mind about what to put on it?
You DO you're wearing perfume for men like Lestrade does sometimes and I bet it's because we're going to see Carla
My t-shirt is good and I helped with Jess's by doing a purple spider and I put loads on mine like a target like John's tattoo and a police badge and lots of brilliant stuff that no one else thought of. But I can't wear it until it's been washed once.
SHERLOCK
Oh, a purple spider is a great idea for a baby, because who could be afraid of a purple spider! A target and badge are a lovely way to represent people you want with you on your shirt, and the rest sounds wonderful! (If it's possible to post a picture of it when you get back home, that would be really nice.)
(It's brilliant to be a very noticing person, Sherlock, but sometimes it's more tactful not to tell the person you notice things about what you noticed--even when you are not wanting to be tactful.
Also, cologne can be very cooling.)
There's a joke in there somewhere about the Doc and Lestrade finding each other hot and not cool, but my brain has melted from the heat...
:D
DW! Long time no see! How are you! (Aren't you leaving for overseas soon?)
Actually, I'm headed to London as we speak for three weeks. Then back for two days, 8ish weeks of training (with the Army, ugh), back for a day (if I'm lucky) then off.
Yikes, hectic! Is the London part business or pleasure (or bit of both)?
I'll be sending good vibes to you for the rest... (even the Army part). :)
I pressed enter too soon. Congratulations on your award, Sherlock. The ones we work hardest for taste sweetest, don't they?
Yes, RR. ;)
Congratulations from me too, Sherlock! You must have been very well behaved to keep out of the thinking corner -- and smart too, to do so well on your classwork! I hope you've cooled down some now. The temperature was 37 outside here today in Boston, and even inside my library it got up to 29.4.
Nice to see you DW. Do you suppose they cranked up the heat in London to make you feel at home?
The army?? My commiserations ;)
What grade of glare did you get for that, Lestrade? Or are you under duress? If so, the duress word is "midge."
He wasn't when he said it, but he may be shortly...
I am absolutely sure your time with the Army will be...interesting and enlightening. On many fronts.
Somehow, I think he wouldn't mind your version of duress, Doc.
How's the evening treating you?
I'll send notes. (Huah, which is how I'm told I'm supposed to end sentences now.)
Pretty well. We had dinner with Nicky and everyone, and we've got our own hotel room. Nothing's blown up, including tempers, from the heat. How are you doing?
See, there's your mistake. You ought to be training with our Army.
My first flight's been delayed, so I'll get a PT test in the sprint to make my connection in 35 minutes. Should be exciting. :)
I would love nothing more than to train with y'all's Army; I had a blast with the RAF! See if you can swing it, yeah?
Dw - no, the midge-t is treating me okay...
We leave London, it reverts to a Grade 2 heatwave for the weekend. We head for the Westcountry, it is upgraded to a 3...which London is due to have back next week! It's following us!
DW - Ha, I'll work on it. Hope you make your flight - sounds like that'll be an exciting few minutes.
L - I've always suspected the weather is vindictive.
I blame you, Hotson.
Hey, DW! I'd feel honor bound to defend the Army if it wasn't all true, lol. Take care of yourself!
Neil Gaiman tweeted this, which I found amusing:
http://hayleycampbell.com/2013/07/19/open-letter-to-hot-english-people/
Ella--thanks for the link! I snorfled at it for quite a while.
Ella, as someone who grew up in Queensland I will admit to the whole skirt-tucked-in-to-undies thing! But only in my own home, not in public :) And I used to love a Golden Gaytime!
I wouldn't presume to tell the British that the weather they're experiencing isn't hot, though. A humid 32 is unpleasant, and doubly so if it's not what you're used to. But I *would* say to the British - stay out of the sun! I know you think you don't see enough of it, but it really is terribly bad for you to bake in it! Don't know if people realise, but Australians are so sun-smart these days that Vitamin D insufficiency is common here. I have to take Vitamin D every day, because my Irish heritage means I avoid the sun like the plague, or I'll burn in seconds*.
*Not really seconds, but near enough, especially when I lived in Tasmania, where the big hole in the ozone layer is right overhead!
There are people dying, lots of people, more than have died in some of the natural and unnatural events that have affected some of the Americans that frequent this place.
The people here have sent best wishes to people who have experienced those things and wished them well because that is what communities do.
Can you not try and see that for a country unprepared for this weather it is a big deal and it is dangerous, it is not something you should be laughing at us about.
A lot of people who come to England from hotter climates can't cope with 'our' heat, because there is almost no respite - unless you're lucky enough to have an office with air con. Which isn't many people. Otherwise shops, homes, transport etc. doesn't have it, so it's a bit relentless when it's this hot for this long. And lots of people do indeed die, especially in old people's homes or care homes.
Anon, I laughed at the link because I've done those things trying to stay cool, not because I don't take the heat wave in England seriously. I might moan about the numbers here, but I don't mean to say that the heat there isn't serious, and I'm sorry if it seemed like I was doing that. I still remember being boggled when I visited England many years ago and the papers were talking about a drought because it was only raining at night. A kind person there explained how the decreased precipitation was a problem because neither crops, nor critters, nor building footings(!) were adapted to it.
L, you're making me glad the trains here have AC. Given that my library's AC has pretty much given up, my commute has been the only time I've been comfortable since Wednesday.
Anonymous, I apologize. I've been getting my information about the heat wave from Twitter, and from here, rather than seeking it out for myself, and so it had escaped my notice that the death toll is so high. I'm really really sorry. Of course you have my best wishes, and I hope everyone finds ways of coping and that you get a break from the heat soon.
-Ella
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