One enormous sneeze. The kind that makes you imagine there is a village of Who’s living in your nostrils, and you are Horton the Elephant, feeling traumatized by the miniature explosion the Who’s just endured. The kind of sneeze that is actually kind of satisfying, like your body expelled a few thousand of those rhinovirus particles. The satisfaction only lasts a few seconds though, because this is no ordinary cold. It is the body builder version of the rhinovirus. It has all sinus cavities at capacity. Then, another sneeze, number 124. Or more likely number 12 for the day, but it felt like number 124.
And now I’ve got to wash my hands again, I grumbled under my breath.
Swirl, swirl, swirl. A chant. A meditation. A rhythmic motion/happy place, made out of sugar.
Swirl, swirl. Swirl that frosting. The frosting version of a spiral. Spirals appear all over in nature, and they look very nice on cupcakes too. Autumn cupcakes, for an autumn party, for a group of scouts excited about their upcoming autumn badges. The heat index was a hundred and six degrees today. That’s ridiculous, even for Florida. I had the broken crayons in a muffin tin out on the driveway. September should not be crayon-melting weather. Mother Nature is confused.
The heat makes you confused. Because of Mother Nature’s confusion, everyone else is now too. I lost count of the sneezes, so clearly the heat-fog had set in. The dogs paced; to seek out afternoon routine of lying in sun, or to seek out cold air conditioned ceramic tile – what to do? I was standing in the kitchen wondering at how odd it is to make spice cake, while it feels like the middle of July. And then, the confusion spread and something dastardly happened. The air conditioning got confused, and stopped working.
Florida Autumn: Lots of hype, but no follow-through.
The oven was on and there was no breeze outside. I was trying to calculate how many minutes I had before the house became a stagnant place of sweat, while the rhinovirus was pounding away at my sinuses trying to strong-arm its way out. The hero of this story, my husband, was on the phone trying to locate an air conditioning company that wasn’t a jerk, and therefore would sell us the part we needed. No parts stores are open on the weekend. We can’t sell the part without a service call, our insurance won’t let us. Right…
Will the frosting melt off the cupcakes? Will the heat-confusion turn into heat-aggression and all the scouts will collapse into one never-ending argument? How are we going to celebrate the end of summer, without the actual end of summer? The heat confusion took away rational thinking.
Then the wisp of a clear thought rolled through my head. I grabbed onto its coattails, letting it drag me out of the heat-fog. It started as this: Yesterday the water company decided to ‘fix a pipe’ and turned off our water for eight hours. Today, no air conditioning. This time last year I didn’t have lights either, and had to take the plywood off the windows. The year prior I wasn’t even here, because I had to evacuate and then returned to a hot, smelly house and a yard full of fallen trees. This year, knock on wood, we’ve been given the kiddie version of hurricane season. Absolutely no complaints.
The Florida I'm in love with. She's crazy, but she's mine.
A saint of an air conditioning repair man met my husband in a parking lot and sold him the part at cost. He got a nice tip and I’m sure a reservation for a nice spot in heaven. I imagine God favors people that fix air conditioners.
Ok, first of all you're right! This summer needs to end now, is too hot!
Second, where's my cupcake?!
I sent it general mail, addressed to blacklux c/o post office Puerto Rico. Should arrive soon. The frosting will be melted though.
I'll wait then...
I felt hot reading your post, glad the air con was fixed. The nice man made good karma selling the much needed part. I love kind people.
AC men are by far the most popular tradesmen in these parts. So much power they hold in their hands :)
I love kind people too. I aspire to be one.
Snap
You too, huh? Were you in the zone while you swirl-swirled that frosting?
I suspect this is your wife's handiwork. Don't lie :)
I couldn't swe- swirl a cat @ginnyannette. Course it was her handy work!
I have this feel that she and I have a lot in common. Y'all should visit Florida. The tots would probably get along. Or fight, as tots should.
Yeah Id say you do. She's very creative which is weird for a scientist. She even has her own business on the side selling bows for little girls and frames for special occasions. http://www.thelittlethingsirl.com/. Loaded she is 😂😂. Don't know how she finds the time. I picked a good'un! We will be over the weekend so. Any hurricanes?
You do seem to take a lot of vacations, so I won't doubt your word. Nope, no hurricanes thus far, just hot as hell. I think it gets down to upper 80s starting tomorrow though.
She does sound like a good one :)
Hello @ginnyannette, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!
Thank you!
howdy there ginnyannette! well... we all feel the heat from this post. People in Alaska are probable hot from reading this post! lol. It does seem to be a long summer so maybe it'll be a long winter.
That air conditioner guy just got lifetime customers huh? The was a wonderful move on his part!
The bottom photo...wonderful..is that sunset? and is that the moon up there?
Yes, we are devoted to that repair man, I think a lot of people are. And yes, that was a nice evening sunset a few days ago. I love a beautiful waxing moon and some sable palms :)
yes Ma'am not bad for Florida, it could be a postcard actually!
Haha!
Those cupcakes sure look delicious!
They were. They were gone by the next morning. Of course, I had a lot of help.
👍🏻