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The thermometer crested at 87 degrees today -- the hottest day so far here in our woods.  Drawing the blinds wasn't much of a defense.  By 10 am I was driven out of the upstairs office and into the old-fashioned air conditioning of the granite basement.  There I worked on my laptop, clearing up all the tasks I'd neglected in the last two weeks of data gathering and analysis.

The family was scattered into the summer.  Nico was off at Dean's house, catching wood frogs, trampolining, wrestling, and generally rampaging.  Monica was leading her intrepid camp troops to Stepstone Falls in Arcadia.  Alberto, his Colombian blood completely untroubled by the heat, was upstairs vainly trying to rally the Brazilians over the Chileans in their World Cup match.  Porter is furthest off, in the Bahamas searching for dolphins and manta rays.

At 5 o'clock there was thunder and wind and cool air to settle the temperatures back down into the 70's -- and I could come back up from the cave.

Update:  an earlier version mistakenly depicted Alberto rooting for Chile instead of Brazil.  Anubis Bard regrets the error.  :-)

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