WOW. It hit 99.1 degrees in my backyard and it's been incredibly humid. The last few days have been hotter in other towns in MA as we've had some nice Atlantic breezes but it's still been brutally hot. High 80s and low 90s for 3 days now. My poor northeastern blood can't take it. I fade out in the heat and I'm a total wimp I'm much more suited to dealing with -20 temps than the hot weather.

The humidity is the killer though. Not only does it make a lot of things unpleasant it makes book binding difficult, especially when gluing leather to paper or paper to leather. The paper is larger as it's absorb3ed moisture as is the leather, not a lot but enough that it shows. Apply any heat to it and you get cockles and waves. So, though I have a big project I'm ready to do, I'm not working on it. I demand a good product for this client and I know she won't want anything but my best… It also gives me a little more time to think of the binding. I'm in a linking sort of mood, so I could just do bands across the spine of links but I was thinking of a French linking style I saw online and I think it would make a nice pattern on this spine, red thread on a white leather… It will be eye catching to say the least.

So in the heat I've been spending time at work- it's hotter there as I work about 35 miles from my house and it's straight inland. I work in an older building so the AC is spotty and doesn't quite work right. That means by noon I'm damp with sweat. I keep a water bottle close by but when it hit 80 degrees in my office I tap out. It hit 80 in my office at 1pm Monday and around 2 yesterday.

I feel like I've been working half days- but I've been getting in at 6 am so not  quite. I have felt like I've had a lot of extra time in the afternoon. So I've been coming home getting a few chores done and then heading to the beach. Monday I took the dogs with me and it was too much to bring both of them so the next time I  do it I'll take one. But when I haven't taken the dogs I've taken my sketchbook and watercolors with me. I've posted my sketches here, click through to flickr to read more about them.

Last night was a particularly nice night the temp had dropped about 10 degrees and the waves made a gentle crashing sound. I waded out and got hit with a large wave to my waist I had expected the wave to only come to my knees. So I sat on the sand and painted in wet shorts. I think it cooled my core temp down and I felt almost instantly better, though my pants were wet.

Anyway, I'm thinking of talking to my boss and seeing if I can change my schedule to early days all summer. It will seem like one long vacation!

At the beach after work
Originally uploaded by lessherger

I don’t usually do much after work, Getting up at 5 am and getting home around 4:30pm and driving on 128? Sucks. But today almost home C called me from the beach wanting me to drive there. I almost said no, but then realized that I had nothing better to do than fall asleep on the couch. So, I went brought a couple of sodas and endured: ants, annoying lady screaming at her kid, and the wannabe bad ass kids talking about sex and getting drunk all thew while being obnoxious about he whole thing.

I also noticed that the posted time for allowing dogs on the beach is now 7:30pm rather than last year’s 7pm. Sigh too bad my dogs LOVE the beach and don’t poo all over the place, it’s one of the few places we can let Ruby run free. It almost makes me want to participate in town politics. Like I said almost. I’d rather be able to have my dogs on the beach and pay more for a park guard than not have my dog on the beach. As is my taxes are outrageous.