Celsius

It's better to just switch your brain into celsius mode, rather than try to convert temperatures from celsius to fahrenheit in your head. For example, learn that 25 degrees celsius is what the temperature will be like in heaven, so a 27 degree day will be lovely and warm, a fifteen degree day will require a jacket, and a seven degree day is winter weather in Melbourne. This seems to be the most effective long-term way to interpret the forecast. It is worth learning to understand these numbers, too, rather than just dressing the way you did yesterday.

Yesterday the temperature topped 42 degrees. Recall that heaven is a pleasant 25. I left my office just before 3pm and, stepping out of the air conditioning, I thought I had entered a convection oven. The wind blowing from the west was hot enough to slow-cook a potato.

Lucky for us, we had set up an early evening get-together with neighbors across the street: a woman named Ursula and her son Daniel, who is not far from Jonathan's age. Ursula texted me in the morning. Her mum lived next door and had a pool. Because of the heat, could we meet there instead?

Thank goodness that the people in this city are friendly -- friendly enough to invite a family of strangers over to spend an evening at their mum's pool!

The pool had no heater, and the water temperature was 28 degrees. Even though the outside temperature in heaven is a pleasant 25, your body temperature is around 37, and so 28 is a little chilly for swimming on  a cool day. But on a 42 degree day, it felt so so so good to get into that pool.

We said goodbye to the neighbors at about 9:30pm. The hot wind outside had stopped, and the temperature was probably around 38 degrees, so tolerable. We opened all the windows in our rental house, and turned the bedroom fans on high, and attempted to sleep.

At midnight I woke briefly, and then couldn't sleep any more. I had not realized, while sleeping, that I was being slow-cooked like a potato. All soft on the inside.

Luckily, fifteen minutes later, the room filled with air. A cool breeze had climbed in the windows and was checking out all the corners of the room. And then, it became stronger and a little unruly, and it slammed the door shut and ran down the hall knocking over furniture. The blinds began to whack against the window, loudly, chattering and banging. And I just lay still a moment longer, listening to the havoc, appreciating the cool. Finally, Tim got up and pulled up all the blinds, propped open the door, ignored the thing that had fallen over down the hall, and came back to bed.

We listened to the trees whip around in the wind outside. I pulled up the sheet. And we finally slept.

Five o'clock in the morning, huddled in the sheets, I was cold. I rolled over and pulled my arms around me to try to warm up, but it was no use. I climbed out of bed, turned off the fan, pulled on a blanket. Outside, rain was lightly falling. Fifteen degrees.

The forecast said that the high today would be 19. I am wearing long pants and a sweatshirt.

It is not a good idea to just wear what you wore yesterday. Pay attention to the forecast, whether or not you can convert temperatures in your head.