Heat Wave.
Mood:  on fire
Topic: Rants
Southern California is having a heat wave. Many people assume the climate here is generally hot, but that's not really true; coastal Orange County has what you'd more properly call a Mediterranean climate, with mild rainy winters and mild summers, too. Especially in the beach communities, where we live, it often doesn't get above the 70s and there is generally a sea breeze. (Inland is another story, and that's why we don't live there.)

This week, though? It is beastly. Humid, thanks to the local "monsoon" effect and the remnants of Hurricane Emily passing to the south. And stupidly hot. Newport Beach hit the 90s yesterday. And my poor sons are battling high fevers.

I'm not mad at the mother who sent her 10-month-old to day care with the virus that infected all the other kids this week. Well, that's not exactly true; I cursed her as recently as 1 a.m. today while waddling to the kitchen for children's Motrin. But these things happen. And probably the only thing worse than being nine months pregnant in 90-degree heat and high humidity is having a fever of 103 in the same conditions. My sons are being typically sweet and upbeat despite their obvious discomfort. I really feel for them.

Once again, my friends on the Eastern Seaboard are turning up their noses; I can see them from here. Feh, they are saying. Welcome to my world. We put up with that every summer. You used to live out this way. Deal with it. To which I say For living in this plastic paradise, this land of BMWs and Botox, I deserve a Mediterranean climate, if only as compensation for the wear and tear of having to deal with people from Southern California on a daily basis.

Maybe so. But as Clint Eastwood said, Deserve's got nothing to do with it. At least this week it doesn't. Meanwhile, I look forward to cooler weather, healthy sons, and a new baby. Not necessarily in that order.