Be careful what you ask for.

After a few weeks of cool, rainy weather, and hordes of whiney citizens begging for some sun and some warm temperatures, we just got slammed with two record-breaking hot days. 101 and 102. That just doesn't happen in June in Portland. We don't usually expect summer till after the 7th of July! This has been a surprise. Everyone has to go out and buy new sunglasses because we forgot where we put them last fall. We have to dig out our sun-clothes and we'll wear them wrinkled because it's too hot to iron anything. Our skin is fishbelly white, so we need sunblock. Probably put away with the sunglasses, don'tcha think? But it wouldn't matter if we COULD find it. The stuff expires after a year or so. And I'm not risking my pasty pale epidermis with anything less than fully functional factor fifty. I've already had one bout with skin cancer. (Basal Cell Carcinoma - the best kind to get if you have to get it. One dashing scar on the forehead and regular visits to my darling dermatologist. Doesn't carcinoma sound like something a hillbilly family would name their oldest daughter?)

The mind like a butterfly flutters further from the track . . DH and I heard a story that some misguided equal-rights organization was protesting that all hurricanes are given white-centric names, and wanted more colorful names in the options. We thought that red is a color, and started coming up with red-neck names for the hurricanes. There's Andy-Bob, Betsy-Bob, Cletus-Bob, Daisy-Bob . . . . "Dade county has been devestated by hurricane Wanda-Bob. This, coming in the wake of hurricane Vernon-Bob and hurricane Uneece-Bob, has completely overtaxed the trailor-park insurance agencies."

I don't mind heat as long as I can lie in the shade somewhere with lots of cold water, but a lot of folks are suffering, and what anguishes my knitter's heart is that there is nothing I can knit to help them. We all have our gifts in life. When someone is in need, we respond with what we have. Nurses nurse. Cooks will cook. When a friend comes down with serious illness, I don't volunteer to bring over casseroles. (My casserroles would likely make them sicker anyhow.) My very first impulse is to knit them something. Chemo caps or a cuddly lap-robe or bed-socks or whatever seems most useful. You folks in the hotter climes, is there anything I can knit for the homeless in our city to help them through this sweltering summer?