It’s hot. No I mean really hot! Like frickin’ HOT hot. The jog today was characterized by a severe inability to catch my breath. Here in Philly you get this mushy, sweaty humid kind of hot. Unlike Northern California where they got that dry heat, which is still damn hot, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. That’s that fry your egg on the pavement kind of hot, where the sun bores down on you like a big drill right into your head. In Orlando it was this delightful combination of both. The heat outside was like being in an oven and the sun was just super super intense and the humidity was like… well, being outside was like wrapping yourself in big wet hot electric blanket. Blech!
I have also realized that while my new house has lots of windows and therefore lots of sunlight, as opposed to the New York pad which had neither, it is in fact like an oven in there.
Driving halfway accross the country is not a feat to be taken lightly. Not that it's impossible, but it can be less than fun. Some factors to consider when planning such a trip that may ease the pain of 24 hours in a motor vehicle:
- Air Conditioning is a modern convienience that I choose to not be without for very long if I can help it. Call me spoiled, but the continous feeling of having a sweaty back is not my favorite. So when planning this sort of excursion, you may want to avoid using a car that has spent most of it's life in a state that is so frickin' cold most of the time that the previous owner didn't even realize that the AC totally needed to be recharged because it currently only blows luke warm air.
- It is probably a good idea to arange your belongings so that the front seats have a full range of motion. If you decide to fold down the back seats and place two bookshelves into this newly extended "trunk," make sure the bookshelves don't force you to move the front seats slighlty forward. This may seem like a small inconvienience, but if you plan to spend 24 hours in these seats, that small bit of space becomes a big factor. Plus, these bookshelves take up the WHOLE trunk, which brings me to my next point.
- If you are purchasing this car from someone in a state where locking the automobile is optional, you may want to consider the following: Because the car never gets locked, the previous owner may decide to not even bother to fix the door locks if they break. As I said, this is not a problem in the poor excuse for a city that the previous owner lived in, but you now may live in the 'hood, or in fact be traveling halfway across the country, and so locking the car is necessary. To unlock the car you need to climb in throught the truck, which is annoying, but not difficult, unless you decide to place large pieces of furniture in the trunk.
- Watch out for strange places that may cause confusion. A good place to stop when driving from Minnesota to Philadelphia is somewhere in Indiana. I-80 will take you there just across the top portion of the state. If you stop for the night, things however, may get confusing. Especially in the summer time. Let me explain it this way. Indiana is in the Eastern Time Zone, but they do not recognize daylight savings time, so in the summer, when you cross into Indiana, you cross into EST, but it is still Central Time due to this Daylight Savings Time hitch. But when you get off the highway and drive to the Knight's Inn, because the Holiday Inn is like $90 and the Knight's Inn is $39.95, you actually cross into Michigan, which recognizes Daylight Savings Time, so you turn on the TV and realize some stations are Michigan stations and some are South Bend Indiana. What the fuck time IS it anyway? They solved this by creating a new region called Michiana. But my suggestion is to stay away in the summertime. This much confusion is more than any one person should be required to handle.
- Western Pennsylvania is very hilly is may require you to actually turn off the cruise control because taking some of thos turns at 80 can be a little hairy.
- Three pork chops is to many for any one person, except for that family that sits next to you and orders entres with soup and salad and appetizers and dessert.
