Heat

Tuesday 7/16/24

You know what there should be more of? Water fountains. It could be a Boston issue and not one elsewhere, but there are very few water fountains in this city. I don't know--this just seems like an obvious health thing to me. People need water. It's so hot now so one is perhaps more cognizant of the scarcity of water fountains, but hydration is essential and I think a city should provide plenty of outlets for said hydration.

You end up drinking so much without trying to drink so much in weather like this. I go through liter after liter of water. In the winter, I'm making an effort to drink those liters. In the soup of July, they're consumed as if by accident.

I'm sporting a lovely heat rash on my right side. Been washing it several times a day and applying hydrocortisone cream. It's getting better, but it burns every time I work out.

Everything is sticky right now. Sticky is gross, no? Stickiness is what you get in summer. I get that everyone likes it, but I don't get why they do. It is anathema to me. I think it comes to a person's constitution, what they're about internally. I bet the people I like and respect the most are less likely to be summer people. I think people of depth are less likely to be. Contemplative people and strong people. I'm sure there are exceptions, so please do relax.

One heat-related thing I do like--love--is the recording of the Grateful Dead's 8/27/72 Veneta, Oregon show, during which it was like 100 degrees. I don't know how they were able to play like they did in that weather.

On Friday I did two circuits of stairs in the Bunker Hill Monument and walked six miles. Saturday I walked ten miles out to Boston College in the early morning and then ran the 130 stairs there twelve times in the rain while working on a story called "The Late, Living Mrs. Rinaldi" in my head, work which has continued since. On Sunday I ran fifty circuits of stairs at the Connecticut gate out in Charlestown and walked three miles. Yesterday I ran 5000 stairs at City Hall. Did 100 push-ups each of those days.

Sunday marked 2926 days, or 418 weeks, without a drink.

Someone who has known me for most of my life remarked the other day that this is the thinnest they've seen me look as an adult. I'm not sure that's true. I have much progress and improvement that I want to make. I mentioned high school and they said I had a baby face then, which I think suggests a certain benign roundness? A more circular shape, anyway.

Yesterday I had a tooth cleaning at 11 AM out in West Medford. At seven the evening before, I perused the commuter rail schedule, and learned that trains left at 9:20 and 11:20. West Medford is the first stop on the line from North Station, so this meant I'd be arriving an hour and a half early. I phoned the dentist and left a message, alerting them to this, just so they knew, saying I'd be bringing work, but that's why I would be arriving so early--no choice. The dentist was able to take me early, which was very nice and accommodating of him. He's one of those people who has no problem talking about weight. A couple years ago he asked me if I'd put on weight and I was very concerned about this. Yesterday, though, he opined--albeit via a question--that I had lost weight. It only makes sense, given that I knocked out those last few bad things in my diet--any red meat, bread--and I haven't missed a day of stair running since the winter.

The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City" really is this spot on song about summer in the city. I think they have it pretty much nailed. "Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty." Actually, my parents saw them at the arena at BC that's at the base of the stairs I was running the other day. Full summer circle.