As soon as Christopher left the temperature went up to 95 degrees. This is a phenomenon akin to having a hurricane in Kansas--it just doesn't get that hot here. The Vermonters are freaking out! Can human life be sustained in temperatures over 85?!?!?

To be fair, most of their buildings don't have air conditioning, so it is a bit warm. But they're pretty well convinced that it's the end of the world as we know it, and they can't imagine why I feel fine. All I'm saying is that if someone wanted to put together a heat management class up here, she'd make a killing.

The heat makes the mountains disappear:


Apparently that haze comes about in hot weather because the midwest burns so much coal. Not that Vermont's power is clean; their little nuclear power plant, Vermont Yankee, is constantly springing leaks and splooging heavy metals into the Connecticut River, which empties into Lake Champlain, which was a superfund site, which still has "dead zones," which now has creepy algal blooms that cause nerve damage and liver failure so they have to post warnings because people swim in that lake. Christopher, now do you believe me that it's a bad idea to get into that water?

Luckily my commute to work is still beautiful. Sometimes rather than take the lake route, I take the high road through this lovely shady arcade:


Here's one of the many random things I pass on this route:


Walking home the other night I met a cat:


He came over for a chat:


Then cat #2 came up and wanted a chat:


Apparently they know each other because they immediately started playing a game that involved a parked car, underneath which Cat #1 crouched while Cat #2 gave him the stares. It was a pretty good game. Cat #3, a splotchy calico of whom I did not get a picture, watched from across the road. So we all had a good afternoon.

Love,
Sarah