now i know what a hundred-sixteen 'feels-like' feels like, i told my friend, and i meant it kind of ironically, becasue when i found out that 96 degrees with such a high humidity was actually 116 in "feels-like" i wondered exactly what that meant. my wife says that 'feels-like' is a scientific term in the sense that it indicates danger to the human body which obviously is more at 116 than, say 100. but if it's meant to remind us what it 'feels like,' how am i even supposed to know what that feels like? i know better than to go out in it, is all i can say.

things could get interesting tonight, when i'm dashing, and it's supposed to be a big thunderstorm. i actually considered canceling, not because i hate dashing in the rain, or am even afraid of it, as i have a small car and they often send you way out in the boonies - no, more just because there's nothing better than watching a huge storm roll in and wash clear a heat wave like this which needs to be replaced by cooler, clearer, fall temps. ah it's heavenly.

i used to get through whole summers without air-con. i'm not sure how i did it. the whole lower social rung of houses in iowa city didn't have it, and on rare days like this we'd all go out to the swimming hole, an old gravel pit, for the day. my car didn't have it either - i disconnected it, though i don't remember why (does that save money? not if you don't use it anyway) - but it was rare that i was actually uncomfortable in the heat and in fact i always marvelled at how much drier eastern iowa was than the pittsburgh and buffalo that i grew up in.

having finished one book, i'm now about to finish another, a brash set of short stories about disney. my family will be appalled knowing i've never actually been to disney. does that bother me? no, or, maybe a little. i feel like at least taking a virtual tour, or something, but i can hardly bring myself to watch old you-tubes about the thousands of people who pass through there every day. there are millions of stories, all over the place, and you can easily get lost in them. include them! i keep thinking. but you can only include so much. it seems to me that if i almost have a book, i should quick wrap it up while i'm ahead and call it done. i'm close. one problem is that it's thirteen stories - more than a dozen, but unlucky. should i just write another one?

the dogs are all het up about something. maybe somebody is walking on mary street! the nerve of them! but if one is actually stuck outside, maybe i should do something about it. it's 116, feels-like, in the shade.