Free Heat

Somebody posted an ad in the "free" section of craigslist the other day that said something along the lines of "it's a little warm around here for my tastes, so if anybody wants some free heat, please come take all you want. I live in the Hawthorne area." I thought that was a very cute ad, and just about sums up how probably everybody in the greater Portland Metro area has been feeling the last couple of days. They've stopped putting "clear and sunny" in the weather forcasts, and instead just write "HOT!" Our deck thermometer reached 107° yesterday afternoon. It was still 85° when we went to bed at 11:30 last night, and it reportedly got up to 111° in Hillsboro today. It's the kind of weather that makes you just want to take a cold shower and stand naked in front of the air conditioner to dry off. And what did we do today? We drove down to Salem in a black van to take five children to The Enchanted Forest for Ellie's birthday. It was actually quite fun, despite the heat -- it's basically a little theme park where they've built fairy-tale houses and have a few rides and things. So they had a crooked house for the crooked man who walked a crooked mile, Indian Caves for Pocahantes, a rabbit hole for Alice, and that sort of thing. Some of the things were really clever, and it actually was in the middle of the trees, so it was somewhat cooler than it could have been. Still, we were really glad when we got home that we had left the air conditioners on while we were out! I think this weather is supposed to continue for another day or so and then cool down somewhat. Man, I never thought Portland could get this hot!