Heat in Isola

I know I'm blogging a lot about Ed McBain's 87th Precinct crime novel series these days, as I am reading the books in order of publication (as much as possible). But it struck me that one novel would be very fitting for this summer, either this heatwave or the next. I blogged about Heat back in July 2024, more specifically about a grossly lying cover on its French translation. I hate heatwaves, but they are more bearable when I read seasonal crime fiction. It makes me hate the heat more, ironically enough. But hey, it's not the only novel of McBain set in summertime. He seemed to consider sunshine as evil as I do (see this post). But hey, if you are looking for summertime crime fiction, you can't go wrong with Ed McBain.

June Heatwave

 Sorry for the commonplace, but I wanted to mention something: this the last day of June. One month of the summer season to be done and dusted. I'm glad, because frankly, it's been godawful: we've been going from one heatwave to another. The last few days have been really difficult: I just cannot stand the heat. Apparently, we only have to go through tomorrow, then it will cool down a bit, in the lower 20s. Nevertheless, I am seriously done with summertime. And there's two third of it left! If you know of a survival guide, please tell me in the comments. In fact, any advices are welcome.

The Summer of our Discontent

"Now is the summer of our discontent..." I am paraphrasing Shakespeare, but here it is: our first heatwave is on its way. It's pretty much here, as far as I am concerned: I get uncomfortable when it goes up to 25 degrees. And it will go above it. At least now, thanks to social media, I know that I am not the only one to suffer: there is a whole community of people who hate summertime. I'm glad, because I literally cannot stand the noise, the blissful sun worshipping of people who seem so eager to get burned. So I found a support group, I try to cope with the heat and well, if everything goes well, summer will be over soon enough.

87th Precinct, Isola

 "The city in these pages is imaginary. The people, the places are all fictitious. Only the police routine is based on established investigatory technique."

 Amateurs of crime fiction identified this quote easily: it is the disclaimer placed before the start of every novel from Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series. I first discovered them translated in French, before switching to original English. Heat was the last one I read translated, suring the summer of 2006. Fittingly enough, I read it all during a heatwave, just like in the book. Before I go any further, I recommend it for a summer read, especially when it's hot outside. I still have my copy, this copy. And you can find on it a glaring mistake: the promotional paper slip says: "N.Y.P.D 87e District". I mean... what? It says in the book that the unnamed city is imaginary. Yes, it is a thinly disguised New York, Isola being Manhattan, but it's sitll not New York. I don't want to be pedantic, but surely every fan of the series worth his salt knows that by now.

Almost a heatwave

 So far this summer, we've been lucky: we didn't have many hot days, the temperatures weremostly in the lower 20s and it has been overall cool. Well, today in the South East it is meant to be reaching 30 in some places. Here, the maximum will be 28 degrees. Almost a heatwave. I get uncomfortable when it reaches 25 and above. Therefore, I am bracing myself. Thankfully, it should not last very long and the temperatures should drop by tomorrow. I hope it will be over soon, in any case.

Bracing Myself

 Well, I guess it could not stay like this forever. Up until this point, summer had been fairly cool, or at least reasonably warm. Nothing to cry home about, everything very bearble. Well, not anymore. Yesterday was hot, today will be hotter, in fact, they are forecasting a heatwave. I checked on the BBC and the region we are in will not be spared. Thankfully, there is no amber warning... for now. We should stay just below 30 degrees. Then if we are lucky, it will go a few degrees down and be tolerable again this weekend. I hope so... Until then I am bracing myself for the next few days and the heat from the pit of hell we will have to live through.

Ugh!

 Well, what goes around comes around. I was so happy that we had a fairly cool summer, I naively expected September to be at least as cool. It turned out I was a proper fool: it is hot with temperatures above 25 and we are heading right into a heatwave. In bloody September. A heatwave. In autumn. This is not new, but this is disheartening. And the attitude of the people who apparently are happy to head to the beach and do one last barbecue is downright infuriating. We might have the hottest days of the year this week! In autumn? Oh bloody Hell!

"Yellow warning of thunderstorms" (at last!)

Yesterday was the last day of a long heatwave, one of many we've had this year. Too many in fact. But now the temperatures have dropped significantly, it has rained regularly all day (not heavy rains, but still) and the BBC even gave a "Yellow warning of thunderstorms" for the area. We haven't had one yet, but I welcome it. I love storms, for one, and it is such a welcome change after the heated inferno of the last week. So bring on the storm.

Ending July

This is the last day of July and am I glad the month is ending. I am one of these rare breeds of people who don't like summer (you know this by now) and July is the peak of summertime. It is generally when the temperature gets way too hot for comfort. Surely enough, July this year hs been the worst July I had in,well, decades, with the worst heatwave on record. It felt here like living through an inferno. Things might get bad come August, but generally it is not nearly as terrible (touch wood). Otherwise, this month has been expetedly exhausting, stressful and generally unpleasant. So yes, that was my month of July. How was yours?

Amber Warning of Extreme Heat

 I'm bracing myself the best I can: it's been hot these last few days, last Monday was a heatwave, now we have temperatures slightly below 30, but come the weekend and the heatwave will be in full force. In fact, we're BBC Weather is giving an amber warning of extreme heat for the weekend. 31 degree on Sunday, last time I checked, and 34 degree on Monday. This is no longer summertime, this is inferno and I hate it. It should go down afterwards, or at least I hope it will.

"Yellow warning of thunderstorms" (yay!)

After the hot weather we have been having these last two weeks (and a few days of heatwave), I read today on BBC Weather that there was a "yellow warning of thunderstorms" in our area for today. If there is a storm (or more, if we are lucky), it would be the very first of the summer. I hope so. I love storms, for one, in fact thunderstorms are for me the highlight of summertime. And they would considerably lower the temperature and make it far more comfortable. All right, all right, I don't want to put my hopes up, it is only a yellow warning.

"Summer Lovers Be Like..."

 Today is the summers solstice, the longest day of the year Which I always take as both a blessing and a curse: it is a high point in the season, but it means that it is the beginning of the end for it. Sitll, we just got out of a heatwave and there is another one building up. So me not happy. But to cheer me up, or at least make me smile, I found this hilarious meme online. I think it sums up perfectly how absurd I find summer lovers sometimes.

Accursed Heat

So far we've had a fairly strange but tolerable summer: it gets in the lower 20s, maximum and the nights and evenings remain fairly cool. Every time this happens, I keep repreating the foolish hopeful's mantra: so far so good, so far, so good... Until it crashes and burns, literally. Case in point: this coming week they are forecasting a heatwave. The first of the season. I am dreading it. When I speak about it, people don't understand that I don't like summer and the sun. Is it so weird that I don't like having my skin covered with squishy, sticky sun lotion, to the point where I look like I'm covered in margarine? Or that I don't like sweating? Or going thirsty? Or to have headache due to the heat? Or being unable to sleep? Or focus? So anyway, I'm really dreading this coming week.

Trop chaud, trop tôt

Mes parents vont à Montréal en fin de semaine, juste quand une canicule historique s'annonce. La canicule la plus précoce depuis qu'on enregistre les données, paraît-il. C'est dans ce genre de moment que je m'ennuie moins du Québec. Je sais qu'il peut y avoir des températures estivales au mois de mai, mais c'est pousser la note un peu trop. C'est trop chaud, trop tôt. Et ça n'annonce rien de bon pour la planète ou pour les mois qui viennent.

Heatwaves in the basement

We are in the middle of a heatwave here. One of the reasons why I dislike summer. It is sticky, it is too hot, little Wolfie struggles to sleep and so do we. i was discussing this with my brother PJ recently and he reminded me of the old days of our childhood, before the time of air con. When we were young and there was a heatwave, my parents used to prepare the basement for us to sleep in it. The basement in our home remained naturally cool through summer and it was lovely. As we were also sleeping in the living room, that was the occasion to watch TV late. Those were the days! I might come back to blog about these times, but right now suffice to say that I wish we had a basement here these days.

Espérer l'orage...

Bon, ce n'est peut-être pas tout à fait la canicule ces jours-ci, mais c'est tout comme: il fait assez chaud et c'est assez collant pour que je me sente en pleine canicule. Et l'air climatisé ne marchait pas dans ma section du bureau à l'ouvrage, calvaire. On annonçait de l'orage il y a quelques semaines. Il n'est jamais arrivé. On en annonce encore de manière imminente. J'ai hâte de le voir et de l'entendre. Ça sera le premier orage de la saison estivale, celui qui baptise l'été, comme je le dis souvent.

Summertime is here (most definitely)

Well, summer has been here for quite a while, but it did not strike me as much as this week. The temperature is bordering on heatwave and it is very sunny. The grass is dry and yellow as if we were in a savannah. If people think summertime is green, they are wrong: summer is a rough, dirty yellow. Another sure sign of the festive season is that night comes very, very late. The solstice is over, but we will not feel the night coming early until the end of August or so. Right now, summer is in full heat. I try to enjoy it, although I find it more draining than anything else these days. How is your summer?

Tout ce que vous voulez savoir sur la crème solaire

Je ne sais pas comment c'est chez vous, mais ici c'est l'été en pleine force depuis un bout de temps. Outre que j'en suis un tantinet blasé, je dois la plupart du temps. me rappeler de me badigeonner de crème solaire avant de sortir. Comme se protéger du soleil est une nécessité vitale, j'ai pensé porter votre attention sur un billet au sujet de la crème solaire sur le blogue du Pharmachien. Toujours intéressant, pertinent, instructif et drôle.

Je m'ennuie de l'air climatisé

Photo prise à l'ancien appart à Montréal, où j'ai passé six années de ma vie. C'était une photo promotionnelle pour le vendre, je veux dire on ne prend pas la photo d'un climatiseur pour son esthétique. L'appart est parti vite. Je ne sais pas si l'air climatisé a joué un grand rôle dans sa vente, mais c'est une des choses qui me manquent ici: en Europe, l'air climatisé pour les maisons et les apparts de la classe ouvrière, ils connaissent pas. Et ces temps-ci, c'est la canicule, une grosse canicule moche et collante, qui je crois joue un rôle dans mon dégoût de l'été. Alors c'est sans doute ce qui me manque plus des apparts montréalais en ce moment. Enfin, ce qui me manque le plus de celui dans lequel j'ai vécu.

Question existentielle (234)

Il faut une journée d'été splendide, avec soleil et tout. Il fait chaud pas rien qu'un peu, c'est la canicule. Mais je ne me sens pas d'humeur estivale, au contraire je me sens résolument mélancolique. D'où cette question existentielle:

-Pourquoi est-ce que parfois l'été me rend mélancolique au point de le détester un peu?