So summer is in full swing here in Seattle. Life has been quite exhausting lately as I've been unusually busy (plans nearly every night) and it's been hot, hot, HOT! Seattle is all about mild weather, but we've had several days in a row of 90+ temps, with a couple days even going over 100 and setting all kinds of records (see my phone's weather forecast from last Wed.). My condo's windows all face north, so I don't get a ton of direct sunlight, but after a couple days of consistent and constant sun, it starts heating up. My poor kitty was pretty miserable during the height of the heat last week.. I kept the windows closed and the blinds drawn, and had a fan blasting in my bedroom (where he always seems to prefer to hang out), but he was pretty lethargic. Luckily, he ate/drank as usual, and made it through the heat OK. The weekend had temps only in the upper 80s, and I think we'll be cooling down from there the next few days, even maybe getting some rain towards the end of the week. If we stick to the 70s for the rest of the summer, that'll really be OK!!
Due to the heat, I've been trying to stay indoors as much as possible, but I did get out two weekends ago to join some friends for a rafting trip on the Wenatchee in eastern Washington. My friend Nicole was going to take her two boys (who are nearly two) on their first rafting trip. I decided to go the "cover-up" route with my clothing in light of the sun and heat and my preference to avoid tanning, so I looked a bit Michael Jackson-esque (only the backs of my hands and bits of the tops of my feet were really in direct sunlight), but it was a really fun three-hour/10-mile outing. Everyone on my boat -- except Nicole and the boys, thankfully -- got ejected at some point, even though we'd been told the trip would be "easy." Luckily, just before I got popped out, I saw the rapid (which had a big rock right under the surface of the water) and grabbed onto the rope. I was popped out onto the rock, but held on to the rope, and since the raft simultaneously got stuck on said rock, I was quickly able to stand up on the rock and step back into the raft. My "spill" was definitely the mildest of our raft's ejections! But thankfully, no one was too seriously hurt or traumatized by their respective falls. The nice thing about going rafting with Nicole is that she and her husband have good friends who own all the rafting gear we need -- rafts, paddles, life jackets. So we don't have to bother with making reservations with a commercial outfit and/or shelling out a lot of money. Nicole's husband, plus the guy who owns the gear, are both river-rafting guides, so we're in good hands whenever we get onto the water. This outing, for the first time, I took my digital camera with me. I had it in this cheap ($7?) but useful clear waterproof bag thing, so I was able to hang it around my neck and safely take pictures at well. The only hitches were that I had to periodically wipe the bag to remove water droplets that splashed onto it, and I had to sort of distort the bag before I turned the camera on, so the lens wouldn't hit the side of it when it extended (thus freaking the camera out and causing it to turn back off). Some of the pictures were distorted due to the bag, but because the camera was digital, I was able to take so many pictures that most of them were postable. Here's a shot of me, Nicole, and her boy T after the ride:
