There is a certain happiness sighted when your bus comes along. It is of course a small specialized form of happiness and will never be a great thing.

-Richard Brautigan, The Old Bus

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Melting

OK. So maybe I was just a little naive when I wrote on May 2, "People don't melt." It was easy on a cool, rainy day to write, "Hard as it may be for people who live in this semi-arid region to believe, the rain won't hurt you. And if you do get wet, you'll dry soon enough."

Even steely resolve to merge transit and walking to create the Transitarian Diet can start to melt when the temperature outside is on its way to breaking a record set 76 years ago.

I've lived in Sacramento since 1982. I know it gets hot. I know the temperature can reach triple-digits for successive days in the summer. Still, there's nothing like a full-body sauna while on an afternoon walk to burn in the reality.

This year I've been walking every afternoon when I get a break in my daily workload. During the winter, I prided myself on walking in the rain. But I'll admit it does seem a bit more deranged to continue the practice when the temperature is 105 on its way to 108.

So today I compromised: Instead of drinking hot, bold-roast coffee from Starbucks at the midway point in my walk, I stopped nextdoor at Jamba Juice. I'm not convinced the energy boost will work as well as the caffeine to get me through the remainder of the day, but at least it will take a little less time for my fan to dry me out back at my office.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a fellow Transitarian (grin) I very nearly discovered my melting point as well. My commute home last night from mid-town took 2.25 hours - due to errands and poorly matching schedules of 4 bus lines and five transfers.

HOWEVER,

I was privileged to avoid being baked in the sardine-packed-light-rail-cars-without-air-conditioning as were many of our fellow transitarians.

My only remark about yesterday - standing to wait in front of metal bus benches without shade or breeze, for 15 minutes or more, tests the limits of human endurance.

And how was your commute home?

Unknown said...

On my way home last night, I ended up in one of the "old" buses. If the bus had air conditioning, it didn't reach the back of the bus. It wasn't as hot inside the bus as it was outside, but it was far from comfortable, especially since I'm on that bus for 45 minutes at a stretch.