There could not have been a more appropriate word of the day as on the 20th of July the heat index values were about 110 degrees. In the heat of the moment. Her temper flashed hot. That babe is hot. Packing heat. I got hot under the collar. All these expressions reflect the heat that rises from within and stirs us to action. But when it’s hot and sticky, you want to sit still, not be stirred into action.
One similarly hot Baltimore day, I sat in my back room and a friend who hates the heat entered in a frenzy. She accused me of sitting there being cool. I was taken aback as this is not a common type of accusation. I considered apologizing but contented myself with thinking that rushing around in the heat was not a good idea. There is more to this story, including the fact that she was staying with me at the time and we did not have an air conditioner.
I met this friend at the bus stop where we started chatting when we caught the same morning bus to work. She had briefly lived in the apartment on the top floor of my building, but had a couple years prior moved out with a boyfriend down the block. One day she asked if she could move in because her boyfriend drank too much. I barely knew her, so I guess she had a knack in those days for taking me aback. But I said yes that she could stay for a while, gave her the front room of the three room flat and she ended up staying about three months. She offered to pay rent, but I would not accept it and told her she was my guest. It was a fairly demanding experience, but we are still friends to this day, some 30-odd years later.
One challenge revolved around her air conditioner, which I vetoed but which she installed while I was out. I was (uncharacteristically) roused to action! Despite her objections, I held firm until she and a friend took the monster out of the window and laid it on the floor of the front room where it sat mutely speaking volumes for a couple months. All the apartment windows and doors remained open so that whatever air there was in the city could circulate freely.
After a while an apartment was found and T. was ready to move. I was vacuuming the kitchen when she came home one day. She asked if I had seen someone out front. I said I had. “He was supposed to carry my air conditioner to my new apartment! Why didn’t you let him in?” She was totally furious, quite beside herself. I roused in response. “What, I’m supposed to approach a complete stranger on the street, a person who isn’t even paying any attention to me, invite him in to my apartment and give him your air conditioner?” She stormed off into the front room. Moments later I heard a loud crash, which turned out to be one of the giant front windows breaking when she had struck it to get it unstuck from the humidity. No injuries. This was my first experience of the calming power of breaking glass. My friend chilled right out and wasn’t furious with me anymore; she fluttered around apologetically explaining how the accident had occurred as, possessed now of preternatural calmness, I calmly picked up the glass, vacuumed up the remaining shards, put a board over the window and called the landlord.
I love my friend dearly and am happy she is in my life, but I also remember the peaceful feeling that washed over me the first day I came home and opened the door to my again solitary apartment.
Well, needless to say, the mention of the word 'heat' will, from now on, bring to mind your entertaining and insightful story shared with this summer-y image.
Thank you for your generous comment on my Danbo "Jump" picture and set. It was an entertaining one to create, and had time allowed (I'd already spent several hours on it ( there could've been so much more added to it or perhaps a collage of photos showing the room becoming more disheveled as the jumping continued. For another time maybe.)
Thank you for your generous comment on my Danbo "Jump" picture and set. It was an entertaining one to create, and had time allowed (I'd already spent several hours on it ( there could've been so much more added to it or perhaps a collage of photos showing the room becoming more disheveled as the jumping continued. For another time maybe.)