UNDER A HOTTER SUN

You can't trust the government troops in these mountains. And they know what cameras look like. It's five days to the provincial capital. Better stay close to the airfield. Also, you cannot build a fire, so use iodine tablets. One tablet, one litre. Fresh squeezed lime juice added after half an hour to forty five minutes following the idodine will precipitate some of the iodine out and disguise the taste.


You'll need a lot of liquids. Canned meat contains plenty of salt.


When I woke up I was drenched in sweat. Had the airconditioning gone out? It couldn't have, there was light in the hallway. As my head cleared I realized that I couldn't pad into the kitchen for weak tea from the thermos, because I was only wearing boxers, there were no flip-flops but fuzzy slippers, and this being San Francisco rather than back there, then, there was no aircon either. It had been a blazing hot day yesterday, the building felt like an oven when I got home, and I spent the last four hours of the working day and first three hours upon my return in extreme discomfort.

And I haven't had a thermos of weak tea in the kitchen in years.
Our tap water is quite drinkable.

My apartment mate is hardier than I am, because when I had checked up on her earlier, she was lying on her bed in her pajamas. Women obviously need to cover up a little more, but it does indicate that she is more heat resistant than me at present. My bloodpressure meds combined with poor circulation in the nether extremities make heat surreal and torturous.
Also, the meds lead to interesting hyper-real dreams.

On the other hand, I haven't hung my mosquito net in a long time, unlike her. The little pests always liked her better anyway, and haven't bitten me in aeons; I think the stuff coursing through my system makes me less appetizing, less edible smelling.


"Ugh, what is that, it smells like a chemical dump!"


"Stay away from the large icky white one, he ain't good no more." If need be I can always light up a stick of snow pear incense (Sydney aloes wood; 雪梨檀香 'suet lei taan heung') to chase them out. Hah, the skeeters probably think I'm severely spalted. Veins of black resin permeating the flesh. Fungoid.

Do mosquitoes speak English among themselves? Of course they do! This is America.


I hadn't eaten last night. No appetite because of the heat. So I would have been a poor feast for the little buggers anyhow.


The end of this heat spell is in sight. It will cool off next week.
Might even rain a bit.



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