h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Summer has well and truly arrived, with temperatures as high as 25 degrees. Iz has finished school and is off for the summer until September. El finished college about a few weeks back. The university doesn't reopen until October! Both our choirs have finished for the summer, although the small choir will be repeating our last concert in August, with one rehearsal beforehand.

El has headed off with the Trinity Chapel Choir to Vienna for five days.

My plans for the long weekend are:

Indian meal tonight - Mrs G and I are being treated, to thank me for some DIY work I did for a relation.

I've to look at our immersion heater (for hot water). It seems to be heating up too hot, so the thermostat may be broken.

We'll probably go to Wexford tomorrow afternoon and stay until Monday, although we'll need to organise someone to feed the gps and tortoise.

Have a lovely summer.

Actually, having all those weeks with no commitments ahead of you sounds quite scary to me. But one always finds something to do, doesn't one! My husband is continually setting himself deadlines and is always grumpy because he then feels he has to keep to them.

We have had very hot water lately, from the new solar panels we had fitted on the roof a couple of years ago. If we go away for a couple of days, the temperature in the water tank is at absolute maximum and you can get scalded in the shower if you don't take care!


Have a lovely time in Wexford - hope you find everything OK. Can't you take the animals with you?

We're going to New York at the end of June for a week, then the next week we're getting a new kitchen installed (the building was finished last summer but we weren't in the mood for getting all the "fitted kitchen" stuff done then).

So it's not going to be a long empty summer.

I've never considered taking the guinea pigs to Wexford. It could be done, but they wouldn't like the 2 hour car journey, and I haven't got anywhere down there to put them. I'd have to get some sort of a hutch and leave it there permanently. Could be done. On the other hand, I can persuade a relative or friend to drop in every day and give them a lettuce and some gp muesli.

We could easily take the tortoise; she doesn't take much looking after. But whoever is feeding the gps can easily feed her as well. She spends 23 hours a day asleep or under her heat lamp anyway.

25C is hot! It was 27 here last evening and I really felt sweltered until the breeze eventually kicked in.

I really hope the weather keeps being good for you, and you find some peace, quiet and relaxation whenever you can Oh, and have lots of fun too.

Actually the predictions are that the weather is going to take a turn for the worse over the weekend, and will drop to 15 degrees by Sunday. But I don't care - I try never to let weather affect me.

Maybe I'm being daft, but I just can't even imagine considering 25C or even 27C as being hot after riding my bike yesterday in temps of 37.7C in the shade. I have no doubt we'll hit the 40's when summer truly bears down on us.

Expect much warmer temps when you get to New York. I've got friends that are heading to upstate NY at that same time. They'll be considering it a little cooler compared to here in Texas.

Anyway, enjoy your summer.

You are indeed wise, Gnomon. If I were to let the weather play any part in my decisions of what to do and when - well, I'd never leave the house. It's been bitter up here this week then all of a sudden it decided to go all summery and now like you I'm looking at bad weather again over the weekend. Who cares?

Have a nice break and make hay while the sun shines.

Count Zero, I've encountered temperatures of 44°C (111°F) in the shade in Egypt, and didn't enjoy it, but it didn't stop me from going sightseeing, although everybody else stayed in the shade and slept. I just prefer it to be cooler. 20 degrees (68F) is the industry standard for offices here, so 25 degrees feels warm. And warm is perfect.

I love it when it's in the 20's.

It rained last week in So. CA.

The most recent occasion I can remember precipitation so late in the year, excepting Colorado Desert summer doldrums coming off of the Sea of Cortez, was back in 1960 and then it was a freak snow storm in the San Fernando area, all melted off by mid-morning.

The weather so far this year has been exceptionally mild so far despite flooding in some districts and somewhat wetter than usual.

Flooding up here now Where did summer go?

Well, we had a lovely weekend with no rain, although it could have been a teeny bit warmer.

Ah well, back to work tomorrow.