Snapshot

Ah, summer on the Aegean. I think this pretty well sums it up.

On my 'My Yahoo' page I have saved weather forecasts for a handful of different cities. They are there because people I know and care about live in these places, and I like to check them from time to time and imagine what life is like for these people living in these places, in the weather conditions of the moment. Today it is hot, humid and still in Minneapolis, with scattered clouds lazing across the sky. I imagine my brother dashing out of an air-conditioned office for lunch and instantly being drenched by the humidity. He stands in line at a hot deli and then beats a soggy retreat to his office. New York is even more humid and windless. I imagine my little brother working in the confines an un-airconditioned autobody shop, sweating over his custom work, dying for a breath of the fresh air that can be so elusive in a New York summer, thinking of all the carefree out-of-town places he'll go on the weekend with his bicycle, his friends. In San Diego it is cool and humid and windless, and I imagine my oldest brother looking out his office window and thinking that this is a 'blah' day, and not what San Diego in summer should be, certainly not on a Friday afternoon. Back in Bremen, Germany, it's been raining for the last three weeks. It is cool and windy, and I can well imagine all my old friends there, soggy and huddling underneath nearest available overhang, grumbling about how summer in Bremen is no summer at all (reminds me of San Francisco, come to think of it). My mother has just arrived in California from her humid South China home, and I imagine her savouring the change from wilting humidity to honest heat. She has a sun hat on, and she's touring her garden, checking up on the plants she hasn't seen since last summer, glad to move without her clothes limply clinging to her skin. My father is returning today from a trip to the northeast of California, and I imagine him whizzing through the hot, pine-scented mountains and down into the blistering central valley, radio on, the air outside dry and fiery and scented with wild oats and sage.

Somehow entertaining these fantasies, however far off the mark they may be, gives me a nice sense of being more present than I actually am in the lives of people I care about. It gives me a very real sense of connection that I sometimes miss in my far-flung home.

And then of course there are the bragging rights. Doing a quick scan of all these cities this morning, I felt like a proud parent whose child has gotten the top score in the class: of all of them, my city has the most sunshine, the lowest humidity, and the most wonderful wind. It's hot and breezy and, actually, perfect. All that's missing is that as-yet unpurchased sailboat. And loved ones to share it with. Donations, anyone?