wednesday night

I am sitting on my living room floor, wearing nothing but my booty yoga shorts, and a baggy T-shirt. My hair is piled on top of my head in some kind of bun so that it doesn’t stick to the back of my neck. My sliding door is open, and it is hot. It is 10:00pm and I’m willing to bet it is upwards of 28 degrees in my apartment.

Outside, a baby is crying, probably from heat exhaustion. I can’t imagine being a baby in this heat. Unable to express your discomfort. Forever at the mercy of your mother, or caregiver. Over heating is imminent.

I can hear the traffic on my street. A motorcycle rumbles by. The bus stops to let passengers on and off. The humidity behaves similar to Snow. Acting as a muffler to the city sounds. Especially at night.

Somebody yells. There is a reply. The rattling of (what I’m guessing is) a shopping cart goes past my window. The heat is making everyone angry and Vancouver’s countless homeless people are no exception. They are aggravated. Touchy. Perturbed. In the past week I’ve seen countless altercations between the less fortunate, mostly on Hastings Street. I’ve learned that while the cold makes people dormant, the heat flares tempers.

The buses and sky train both smell like a gym locker. The rest of the city smells like hot garbage. This gives a new meaning to the expression “stinking hot”. If I breathe through my nostrils, I feel as though the hairs might catch fire as opposed to when in extremely cold temperatures, they freeze.

Tonight I will sleep in my underwear, on top of my (unmade) bed, all my windows open, and a fan. My fan is non-oscillating and is only approximately 6” in diameter and so offers little solace but if I take a cold shower first, it seems to do the trick.

Tomorrow morning, I will go to work. This is the first time I think I’ve ever been glad to go to work. Glad to work inside a concrete building in my closet with no windows. Away from the heat. In my air conditioned sanctuary. This week, I definitely don’t envy labourers.

I check the five day weather report. The high for tomorrow, 39 inland.

We are in the midst of a heat wave and I just drank my last ice cold beer.

It’s too hot to stay awake.

Time for bed.