Dept. of Surfacing
Monday, 23 June 2025 03:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaffy_rIt's Not the Heat, It's the Humidity ...
... which is, of course, a rank lie, at least here in Chicago and a fair amount of the American Midwest. *checks weather site* It is currently 98F, with a heat index of 108F, thanks to the aforementioned humidity. This is the third day, and I imagine I should be grateful that the heat index wasn't up at 117F, as it was yesterday and the day before.
I'm still griping, because Monday was supposed to be cooler, dammit, and not just a couple of degrees cooler. The current forecast claims that Tuesday is going to be much cooler, trust us! I glare at the weather gods balefully over the top of my glasses, because how can I trust them?
Oh, give it up, kaffy_r; you're not dealing with the kind of killer weather other people have lived through; you know, the kind that also kills people either quickly or slowly. You're not even outside today in Chicago's heat. I can't help thinking about people who are forced to work outside in these types of temperatures. Landscapers, construction workers, postal carriers, Streets and San workers ... we expect them to keep working, and can only hope that their various bosses at least give them significant breaks, and a lot of cool water.
I know Chicago, Evanston and other areas have opened public buildings as daytime and/or early evening cooling centers for people without AC, but I've always wondered what happens to the folks who come to those centers to have some cooling relief, when they're ushered out and the doors close? Do they have to go to their homes, or their tents under DuSable Lake Shore Drive, and live through the still existent misery of hot and humid nights?
This turned into a gripe about hot weather, leavened with a bit of social justice awareness. And here I'd planned to update a breathlessly waiting world about what I've done in the last couple of weeks. I suppose I can still do a bit of that. So, in no particular order here are some of the things I've done:
Gone out and yelled at guys who I'm reasonably sure were ICE, when I saw their unmarked-but-blue-light- flashing SUV blocking our street, and realized the guys were wearing the exact type of tan ball caps, tan short sleeved shirts (the better to show their tat sleeves) and sunglasses that show up in recent videos of extra-judicial kidnappings off Chicago streets. Oops, can't forget the bulletproof vests with "Police" on them; cool, cool, except Chicago cops don't wear tan-colored anything. They were talking to a guy they'd ordered out of the car parked just outside my office window. Grabbed my phone, told Bob, then dashed out and yelled "Are you Chicago police?" twice as they were getting back into the unmarked car and leaving. No answer; what a surprise. I asked the guy they'd been talking to if he was alright, He said he was, so I went back inside, although I have a blurred photo of the car leaving. Who knows ... he could be an undercover guy they were talking to, but our neighborhood is significantly Hispanic, and has other significant immigrant communities, and I think I mentioned earlier this month that ICE has been seen in our area. I don't know what I would have done if it had escalated, but if I see any of these bastards on my street again, I hope I go out and confront them.
Hmm. Oh, I successfully made another two loaves of bread. Go, me!
And that's enough*.
* Yes, I'm fully aware of the Mid-East slowly but potentially all-too-surely becoming Ground Zero for WW III thanks to that man (and without John Bolton onside ... JFC) but I'll have to assemble some more spoons to chat reasonably about that fun stuff.
... which is, of course, a rank lie, at least here in Chicago and a fair amount of the American Midwest. *checks weather site* It is currently 98F, with a heat index of 108F, thanks to the aforementioned humidity. This is the third day, and I imagine I should be grateful that the heat index wasn't up at 117F, as it was yesterday and the day before.
I'm still griping, because Monday was supposed to be cooler, dammit, and not just a couple of degrees cooler. The current forecast claims that Tuesday is going to be much cooler, trust us! I glare at the weather gods balefully over the top of my glasses, because how can I trust them?
Oh, give it up, kaffy_r; you're not dealing with the kind of killer weather other people have lived through; you know, the kind that also kills people either quickly or slowly. You're not even outside today in Chicago's heat. I can't help thinking about people who are forced to work outside in these types of temperatures. Landscapers, construction workers, postal carriers, Streets and San workers ... we expect them to keep working, and can only hope that their various bosses at least give them significant breaks, and a lot of cool water.
I know Chicago, Evanston and other areas have opened public buildings as daytime and/or early evening cooling centers for people without AC, but I've always wondered what happens to the folks who come to those centers to have some cooling relief, when they're ushered out and the doors close? Do they have to go to their homes, or their tents under DuSable Lake Shore Drive, and live through the still existent misery of hot and humid nights?
This turned into a gripe about hot weather, leavened with a bit of social justice awareness. And here I'd planned to update a breathlessly waiting world about what I've done in the last couple of weeks. I suppose I can still do a bit of that. So, in no particular order here are some of the things I've done:
Gone out and yelled at guys who I'm reasonably sure were ICE, when I saw their unmarked-but-blue-light- flashing SUV blocking our street, and realized the guys were wearing the exact type of tan ball caps, tan short sleeved shirts (the better to show their tat sleeves) and sunglasses that show up in recent videos of extra-judicial kidnappings off Chicago streets. Oops, can't forget the bulletproof vests with "Police" on them; cool, cool, except Chicago cops don't wear tan-colored anything. They were talking to a guy they'd ordered out of the car parked just outside my office window. Grabbed my phone, told Bob, then dashed out and yelled "Are you Chicago police?" twice as they were getting back into the unmarked car and leaving. No answer; what a surprise. I asked the guy they'd been talking to if he was alright, He said he was, so I went back inside, although I have a blurred photo of the car leaving. Who knows ... he could be an undercover guy they were talking to, but our neighborhood is significantly Hispanic, and has other significant immigrant communities, and I think I mentioned earlier this month that ICE has been seen in our area. I don't know what I would have done if it had escalated, but if I see any of these bastards on my street again, I hope I go out and confront them.
Hmm. Oh, I successfully made another two loaves of bread. Go, me!
And that's enough*.
* Yes, I'm fully aware of the Mid-East slowly but potentially all-too-surely becoming Ground Zero for WW III thanks to that man (and without John Bolton onside ... JFC) but I'll have to assemble some more spoons to chat reasonably about that fun stuff.
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 25 June 2025 12:13 am (UTC)Ah, well: I'm happy to feel that the temperature around here is falling, and I look forward to seeing the humidity fall as well. I'm glad you folks up in Minneapolis-St. Paul have escaped the heat dome. Let's see what the rest of the summer brings to us all!