Catching Up

Good morning to my handful of readers. . . and apologies for three weeks without a post!

I’ve been absolutely fine. I’m so grateful that I can say that. I have not been experiencing a depressive episode, or dealing with anxiety. I’ve had three wonderful weeks, that started with a cocktail do a friend threw in honor of my book at her NYC apartment, continued with a trip to Minneapolis for The Loft’s Wordplay festival, and included lunches with colleagues and friends, a wonderful dinner party, and our younger daughter home for a week with her boyfriend. I live a pretty great life these days and I am present for it. I do not take it for granted.

Another thing I don’t take for granted: A good night’s sleep. Last night, I got one. The night before? Staring at the ceiling, unable to do anything at all. Yet on a previous night of insomnia, I caught up on TV shows and read a novel. Sometimes I think we’d all be better off if we adopted medieval sleep habits, especially during the summer.

And summer affects our sleep habits because our bedroom gets full Eastern sun all day long. By 10 p.m., it’s a hotbox, even with a strong ceiling fan, floor fans, central air, and an auxiliary portable air conditioner. Sometimes one of us wanders down to our guestroom, or even to our screened porch. Lucky, lucky us.

Those options make me think of all the people who don’t have them. This is not knee-jerk sympathy. I’ve stayed with friends, here in the U.S. and overseas, who don’t have the same cooling options, and believe me, when it’s over one hundred degrees in a one-hundred-year-old German house, things get uncomfortable fast.

Now, for the friends who own that house, that’s business as usual — and that’s their business. I was there as a houseguest and given the basement bedroom, which was blissfully and naturally cool. But if their abode heats up on the third and fourth floors the way I know it does, what about people who aren’t “cool” with it? What about people who can’t make changes that they want to make due to illness or age or lack of resources?

I worry about people in Europe. And on other continents. And on this continent. I worry about the unhoused during heatwaves. I worry about a friend who was caught in a six-hour traffic jam in California because of wildfires (I am so glad she’s okay; I hope the others involved are, too).

I don’t worry to an unhealthy level. I send my worries up as prayers because I know there’s only so much I can do. But I also do “matching grants:” If I’m worried about an issue, I make a donation to a credible group that works on that issue. Here are a few ideas about places that are working here in our country to keep people safe during inhuman heat waves:

Always, The American Red Cross

For the globe, Doctors Without Borders

Specifically for bottled water, Catholic Charities

A great, brief blog post from Giving dot org

There are lots of links to organizations in this piece from The Cut

Some “matching grant” matching ideas, from me:

— Keep a case of bottled water in your car for you, and to hand out to those who look like they could use hydration, or request it.

— Shelters of all kinds can probably use your unwanted electric fans; call first to see what they’re accepting.

— Those shelters, and other places, can probably also use your excess face masks, or donations of face masks. So many people are experiencing breathing problems due to the smoke from wild fires.

— If you see something, alert someone: Pets left in cars. People who look listless or unconscious. Children unsupervised in sunny areas during the middle of the day. You don’t have to intervene personally; remain safe and call 911.

— Get trained in first aid so you can discern the difference between heat exhaustion and heat stroke, as well as know when to give fluids and when NOT to give fluids.

Thanks for reading, and please stay as cool and safe as possible.