Cool Thoughts

It's hot!! When I stepped in the car this morning (June 21st), the car thermometer read 96 degrees. As I drove to Temecula it got warmer and warmer until it hit 110 when I parked at the mall. When I emerged from the air-conditioned comfort and walked to the car past the rosemary hedges, I couldn't believe the intensity of the aroma. Could the rosemary's essential oil be boiling off?  The bedding plants had completely wilted; leaves on the outsides of the trees were dried and crispy; only the succulents looked like they were enjoying themselves. 

Sitting in the car with the air conditioning on full blast, waiting for the steering wheel and gear shift knob to cool enough to touch, I thought about my mother-in-law who used oven mitts to take out the garbage when she lived in Yuma Arizona. She couldn't touch the top of the garbage can or the door knobs without them. 

Sitting there sweating, my thoughts swept me away from Temecula to this photo of the Coney Island crowds about 76 years ago. On a day like today, the beach would be the place to be enjoying the pleasure of running over the hot, hot sand into the cool water. 

Weegee, July 21,1940.

And in contrast, this photo, one of my favorite images, of my friend Beth's parent, Hub and Betty at Grand Beach in Manitoba, enjoying themselves on a hot summer's day at about the same time as the Coney Island shot. 

And all the mesmerizing Hockney water.......

And us, enjoying the uncrowded cool waters on Angel Island, Indonesia 2014.