Man, that was some heatwave, wasn’t it? Even the west side of San Francisco got up to the 90s. That’s still not as bad as the rest of California: soon as you leave sight of the ocean, you are in the 100s. I feel most bad and concern for my father who works in construction. It cannot be fun at all yesterday at the work site. God bless the men and women who have to work outside under these scorching conditions. The construction workers, the firefighters, and the guy with a food cart selling hotdogs to the neighborhood.
Yesterday afternoon we got an email from campus saying PG&E is instituting rolling blackouts from 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM. The funny part is the email cautioned us to avoid using the elevators - if possible - during that time. Make sense: last thing any of us want is to be stuck inside an elevator that’s only going to get hotter because no electricity means no circulation, either. Folks in the downtown campus simply left and went home. I guess there’s less oversight over there!
Turns out much of California was under potential blackout conditions during peak hours yesterday, our house included. Thankfully it never came to pass. It seems enough household heeded the warnings and reduced their energy consumption enough to mitigate the need to cut off power. It’s a good reminder for me to be prepared. I really should get one of those fancy multi-hundreds of watt battery generators. The type that people take to go camping or hashtag van life.
Just like air conditioning, you’ll be glad you have it when you need it. Speaking of which, I’m lucky my studio is somewhat subterranean so it stays cool even when outside temperatures are in the 90s. If that weren’t the case, I would be running a portable air conditioning unit for sure. As a friend said: “Comfort [at the home] is paramount.”
Blue lagoon.