What a spectacular night!
It’s six minutes to midnight and the Cassowary and I just came in from a late-night constitutional. Soon’s I finish this, it’s into the pool.
Weirdness in Arizona: the 90 degrees outdoors feels cooler and more comfortable than the 85 degrees inside the house. Just turned the thermostat to 78 for sleeping purposes. The unit’s banging away, cranking chilled air that does little to dispel the sense of oppressive heat inside the building. But oh, it’s lovely outdoors.
In the “good” old days, people here had sleeping porches. Those who couldn’t afford to spend the summer disporting themselves in Prescott, Flagstaff, or Payson, up in the high country, slept en plein aire, with a bit of bug screen between themselves and the scorpions, the black widows, and the (few, in those days) mosquitoes. Burglars and rapists were not an issue.
Sometimes I think it would be worth doing: have someone come and install wrought iron fencing all along the eaves in back, with a deadbolted door or two. Then velcro some nylon bug screen to the inside. This would accomplish three things:
• On a night like this, I could sleep out there on a hammock, reasonably secure against bugs and roaming madmen.
• When the weather’s nice and cool, I could throw open the bedroom’s Arcadia doors and not worry about visits from passing sh**heads.
• It would bring the unfenced pool back up to code. (You didn’t ask, which was wise, but since you wondered: you can substitute massively locking doors to the backyard for prison bars around the pool).
Just imagine how lovely it would be to sleep outdoors this evening, under the quiet stars! Or how sweet to sleep indoors of a winter evening, under a down comforter, with the bedroom doors full open to a 60-degree night.
Yeah!
Image: A green and red Perseid meteor striking the sky just below the Milky way. Mila. GNU Free Documentation License.