Crane Beach

Crane Beach, MA (June 26, 2005)

The good news is that the thermometer finally raised to summer temperatures. The bad news is that it didn't stop, and it went straight up from yesterday's 15ºC to today's 36ºC. That's in the high 90s, for the folks this side of the Atlantic that still refuse to acknowledge the metric system spread centuries ago by the French revolution to the whole rest of the world. The heat index is even worse, with enough humidity that I swear there was a trout playing tag with the finches frequenting the bird feeder on my deck. Over 45ºC, whatever it means... unbreathable air that feels like scalding steam... the inevitable bad karma for all the sacrificial lobsters I mercilessly gorged upon. 

Mayli walking ahead

To be fair, this hellish weather is not much hotter or wetter than the similarly torrid sauna I remember from my Massachussetts summers. With one big difference: when the temperature in Boston became too high I could always hit the road to the beach, and cool off in the year-round frigid waters of the Atlantic. That's not an option in Iowa: according to Wolfram Alpha the closest ocean to my house is 1328 km (825 miles) away in the Gulf of Mexico. I won't be able to make it back for dinner. The only escapism that is thus left is reminiscing about the sweet memories of the beaches of yore, when day trips to the sandy shores where the sacred rite of the sunny summer weekends. My favorite place of all, for the many years I lived in Boston, was Crane beach on the North Shore, a 4 miles long expanse of finely crushed seashells with sandbars and sand dunes, a mosquito-infested pitch pine forest, and miles and miles of hiking trails. When we were in Boston, we went there a lot.

So, this is the deal. Since I clearly have to suffer the next few sweltering days without access to the sea, I will torture myself by posting photos I took at Crane beach during the 12 years I was a Boston denizen. Starting from today, vicariously cooling off, looking at the pixels on my screen.

Crane Beach, MA (Aug 25, 2007)