9 miles in 1 hour, no pain! Hurray! Despite the mid-90s temps after dinner, I just had to get out there on my bike. And except for a few blocks to and from the trail, I biked in the shade of trees. And all was well. Few people are out when it is hot, but they don’t know what they're missing. The humidity amplifies the scent of the pines, the scent of the moss and peat and grass and all the growing things is stronger than when the air is dry. What's so bad about using all your senses when outdoors? What's so bad about getting sweaty while doing so? I much prefer it over freezing and not having any feeling in my fingertips. And besides, our summer is so short, I like to be outside in it every single day.

The next couple days we're not only under an extreme heat warning but also a poor air quality alert as well because THE BOUNDARY WATERS CANOE AREA IS ON FIRE! They've closed it down and canceled permits and rescued/evacuated campers/paddlers. I just don't know what else has to occur to get people to understand that the earth is burning up from our disrespect. If the heat doesn't destroy the BW the proposed mining will.

Sometimes I feel like I am the only one trying to make a difference. I saw my team members dressed in sweaters during our meeting the other day and just couldn't believe it. Why in the world would you air condition your house so cold that you have to wear a sweater??? When I told them my AC is set at 80 during the day and 76 at night, they were shocked, like I was the crazy one. Um, no, I'm not bundled up in sweaters and blankets in the middle of summer. One of them had the AC set at 69!! That's just craziness. If you have to wear sweaters, your AC is too low.

The nearby beach remains closed (since the end of June) because of heat and e-coli from those damn geese. The beach is a major attraction for the people of this low income neighborhood when it is so hot out and now they have nowhere nearby to cool off. The unsheltered are sitting in the shade of the trees, still donned in the many layers of clothing they wear. The fire departments are bringing their tanker trucks to the community centers for cooling events for the children. And now we'll get hit with the double whammy of smoke.

This is not normal. But it is becoming normalized because of the gangsters in charge who are contributing to the destruction of the earth.

Today is my work-week Friday, as I have Thurs and Friday off. And I did get access to wage info yesterday and am happy to know I do make more than the others.Why did my manager make such a secret of it then??

Been thinking a lot of all the fraud talk. It seems to me the ones most vocal about it are the ones who themselves are committing fraud, no? The ones who know how to go about committing fraud because they're so adept at it? They want to think we are like my dog, who gets distracted when I say "rabbit". They point and yell "fraud" and when we look in that direction, they're committing their own fraud when we're not looking.

Honey's cousin's husband died. She called him at 5:30am to ask that the box he makes for the ashes have a Coca-Cola theme. Sooo bizarre!