I can't anymore. I had to travel up to the college in Newark today to get my assignments for the fall and spring 2024 semesters. Let's just say it's going to hard to find the time to fish as I'm loaded up pretty good for next year. Having off during the summer? You can have it. I rather be off in the spring and fall.
This heat is just ridiculous. In fact, it's just that all of the weather patterns suck these days. Global warming? I don't know. Just changes in the world? Are we closer to the sun? Yes, there used to be hot days, maybe even a week or to, during the dog days of summer but this sucks, and sucks the live out of you. How would you like to be on line for a ride at Six Flags or down in Disney for two hours trying to get your kids on It's a Small World?
The winters aren't winters, the spring is a mix of monsoons and droughts, summer in the United States is like living near the Equator, and the fall, well maybe the fall is kinda alright. I looked at the above weather report for Trenton, 94 feels like 104, humidity 52%. And I picked Hilton Head, why? Because I'd move there tomorrow if we could. 90 feels like 106, humidity 69%. They say it's the humidity that gets you. And that's why living in Arizona is so great, at least what's they say. Let's take a
look at The Grand Canyon State (Their nickname) is today. 107 degrees, humidity 16%. And this week the temps look great 115, 116, 115, 112, 109, 109, 110, and 110. That may be great if you're a bearded dragon and like to sun themselves outside.
These temps are disastrous for both the environment, humans, and animals alike. Who can stand this heat? If you're in a tough spot and don't have air conditioning how can you stand being indoors, get a good nights sleep, or not choke out your kids when they act up. It's not good physically or mentally. And for those that have to work outside in this? God Bless you. And while my days are long gone, how about fighting a fire in this? There's not enough Gatorade that could keep you hydrated.
Above is the chart for the Delaware River at Trenton. Water is 86 degrees. It's amazing how striped bass can tolerate, probably barely, such a wide swing in the water temps, and DO (dissolved oxygen levels). even if you fished in the dead of night you're talking of hooking, fighting and releasing a fish in 84 degree water, that's a dead fish right there. We're supposed to get some rain late tonight and into the
morning with a little reprieve from the heat with air temps below 80. But then we have another round of south winds. Those are the winds that keep the beach blazing and the water freezing. The weather doesn't seem to just remain steady. The seasons don't act like they used to. With all of this hot weather it's just a matter of time before we have a repeat of last year out along the Delaware River. It was on
June 15th that a deluge occurred when the heavens opened up and caused flash flooding killing seven people in Bucks County just across the river from our house. One of the victims bodies, a 9 month old, still hasn't been recovered, and most likely never will.
Productivity, and even movement, is hard to muster up in this heat. Who wants to do anything? While I'm hell bent on starting to move towards getting our life in order and the house ready to sell I can't muster it up in the heat. Our window units only do so much and they are on a rotation, living room during the day and bedrooms at night, as to not blow up the electrical panel or cause a fire. I can't imagine being elderly, or sickly, in this heat. I would just want to give up and surrender. Imagine being old, paying high New Jersey real estate taxes and still having to pay for other peoples kids to go to school in your town, and paying thousands of dollars each year trying to keep your house warm in the winter and huddled around the window unit in the summer with your dogs laid out on the floor like they're dead, or want to be dead. And there seems to be no relief, not from the heat, the extreme weather, and the costs of living in a private single family home in New Jersey these days.
I guess I should just shut up and enjoy the heat, winter, and the home heating oil deliveries, will be here before I know it.
