First,
there's this. And? Last Friday hit 99
o and every day since then has been 100
o or hotter. Our first projected break is next Monday, when it may "only" be 96
o. I biked outside Saturday morning, and an hour earlier on Sunday... still too hot. The last couple of days have been in the garage, and still a slog. If I were a morning person like HalfshellHusband, I'd be up and sunblocked by 6:30 or 7:30, and could go out really early. But my Sunday ride started at nine, and I pretty much crept back from the turnaround point.
Stupid weather! This is one of those horrific periods where anything you need to do outside or away from the house has to be finished by 10am, because you will not want to go out after thateven just to drive to somewhere air-conditioned. You'll be soaked in sweat just from riding in the car. Argh. Sacramento, home of summertime cabin fever!
I drove down to
San Diego last Wednesday so I could move our daughter home from college. The drive down wasn't too bad, though I caught part of LA's rush hour and the beginning of San Diego's. AND, the hotel where I was staying... was last year's hotel that I had vowed not to return to! But the online picture is totally misleading. I frankly can't imagine from what angle they could photograph the hotel so that it looks like it's next to a sidewalk with the ocean behind it. In reality, it's wedged into a semi-industrial area on an oddly shaped lot, and there are cement walls surrounding it on all sides. Did they just photo-shop out the walls, and the surrounding buildings? This hotel is also six miles down the freeway from where the San Diego traffic really picks up, which is to say, about 40-60 minutes farther than you really want.
After driving all day, I went to the hot and badly appointed gym for about 40 minutes, then back to my room to shower, eat, and finish my
Idol story. That had to be done Wednesday night, because I knew I'd be out and then on the road all day Thursday and would have no time to post. :(
Thursday morning, I got
lost on the way to my daughter's part of the campus again (but recognized where she'd lived last year! Too late). The campus must be more than a mile across, with several roads through the middle. So, after arriving about 45 minutes later than intended, we set about the project of collecting and moving stuff into her next year's apartment. Fetching the desk, which was the sole reason I'd driven the SUV down (the desk top was almost as big as a door). Then waiting for the used dresser to be delivered, only to discover that the seller couldn't get it into her car and we would have to go pick it up. Plus, ferrying around heavy boxes containing lots of dishes, pots & pans, etc. that will just stay in San Diego over the summer. The new apartment is in a huge and really pretty complex that is fancier than it needs to be, and much farther from the campus than my daughter would like (she let her roommate do too much of the finding, and the roommate has some princess tendencies). The complex also doesn't allow you to park any closer than an illegal fire lane, from which you have to carry everything half a block, up some stairs and through a security door, and then up the elevator and to the apartment itself. /o\
Needless to say, all of this took
hours. Hot, sweaty hours in which my daughter finally regretted that dresser (I hadn't been able to persuade her over the phone how heavy it would be, and she'll only be able to use it for about 1 1/2 years. Rolling plastic craft cartthat's the way to go! But noooOOOOOOOooooo...) When we finally left for home, it was after 2:30, so we knew things would not go well. You need to leave SD no later than 1pm to avoid the L.A. rush hour bottleneck, though we were not prepared for the traffic jam to start in San Diego and cover the next 30 miles. We stopped for an early dinner in Santa Ana, rather than sit on the freeway all that time. Her choice was a highly festooned Mexican restaurant ("That place is lit!"), where even the rear parking lot was decorated. Also, there were large Nutcracker figurines inside the restaurant. Sadly, the food was kind of bland.
Back on the freeway about 7pm, trading off driving because we were so tired. Some smelly stops in the lower central valley.
Dead stereo about 3 hours from home, though at least it didn't die during my solo trip down there. \o?
Finally home at about 2am on Friday. *thud* Geez, what an ordeal. But we made it safely. And now we just have a couple of days left with her, as
she flies out to D.C. early Thursday morning. *cries*
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starandrea
