“Hot times, summer in the city,” indeed. Mother Earth hates humans for polluting her earth, sea, skies, and creatures great and small. She’s getting payback with wildfires in Hawaii, tropical storms in “It never rains in” Southern California, hurricanes in Florida, and incessant, exhausting, and murderous heat waves worldwide, including here in Central Texas, USA.

Your dude has been either doing 10-mile rides outside late at night on Sonnie the GT Arette, or hiding out indoors in the life-saving air conditioning riding on Sommar the Fuji Finest with the occasional venture out. Today it wasn’t quite so hot, so I braved the elements mid-morning and survived a 33.47-mile ride. So, here’s my biking story lately, told mostly in pictures, because a third of a century takes a lot out of a dude even after a shower and nap.

Here’s photographic evidence of the effects of 62 days of 100 F or higher that we’ve had. Although 2011 had 90 days lke that, overall we are averaging the hottest summer ever in 148 years since records were started being kept in Austin. I mean, it gets hotter in manny places. But it’s all what you’re used to.

There’s some pretty cool public art in Austin. It’s always fun to find something new, whether it’s sanctioned like these were, or not. You can do whole rides just looking for murals if that’s your jam.

Heat outside calls for cold movie theaters. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part 1 was pretty damn entertaining, as usual. Tom Cruise may have some nutty religious beliefs (Wait–aren’t all religions kinda wacky if you think about them critically? Yes.), but he jumped his motorcycle off a mountain nine times, so if it words for him and doesn’t hurt anyone else, I guess. Blue Beetle stars Xolo Mariduena from Cobra Kai, the Karate Kid series on Netflix. As Marvel movies maybe it wasn’t the best ever but who cares? Since I speak Spanish and live in a majority-minority Hispanic state, I was glad to see our hermanos and hermanas finally get some representation.

I also saw Barbie and Strays, and both were entertaining. Oppenheimer is a must-see given nuclear power Russia’s war on Ukraine, and is forthcoming. The highlight was when I convinced occasional cyclist Rhodney to catch The Big Lebowski with me on the big screen, 25 years after its orginal release in 1998. It did not disappoint. Not seen it? You’re truly missing out on a quirky cult classic from the Coen Brothers.

Here are some objects seen in recent days. One is from a house I didn’t move into, an elephant human hybrid. I’ve always thought it was a nice that Hinduism has a specific deity who is the “…remover of obstacles and thought to bring good luck; the patron of arts and sciences; and the deva of intellect and wisdom. As the god of beginnings, he is honoured at the start of rites and ceremonies. Ganesha is also invoked as a patron of letters and learning during writing sessions.” (Source: Wikipedia)

The air traffic building and the shell of a WW I hangar are all that remain of the former ariport. Now it’s a master-planned New Urbanist mecca known internationally for its design, use of public and private spaces, active transportatio features (truly protected bike lanes), parks, and so on. Oh, I also snapped this large-derriered ventilator in a Home Depot.

It’s hard not to take shots of downtown, so I do. The view changes of course depending on the spot, or even at the same spot, naturally. As they say a river runs through it, but w call this off-shot of the Colroado River Town Lake or Ladybird Lake (few use the latter). Thanks to the low water and heat, there’s algae in it, so it’s not safe to swim, espcially for dogs. But people do, and paddleboard, row, etc.

Neighbors fly all sorts of things, in this casee the Ukrainian and FC Austin, the town’s relatively new soccer team. Despite the heat and drought, native plants and those that aren’t but which get watered still grow, so bees go about their business. In this unflattering photo to show that I’m not comfortable. And also heavily sunscreened, with a hat that protects my neck. I literally could not care less how it looks since it protects me from the sun. The photo was taken about halfway through a 33.47-mile ride. Although when I started, it wasn’t bad–a balmy 90 F–it sure was a skosh warm by the time I finished. But the legs felt good for a change, and a shower and nap mostly restored me.

Endinng on a hopeful note, here are some more shots wth water. Although the first two are both from a pond that is well below the normal level, the last shows some rain that accumulated. The combination of causes of the hottest summer ever in Austin–global warming, the urban heat island aka albedo effect (too much concrete trapping heat), the heat dome and El Nino weather patterns–we have two more weeks of over 100 degrees to go.

September offers some respite, and then by October it’s fall for a few months. TIme to start training for my annual birthday ride and make up some missing miles. How’s your summer on or off the bike been going? Here’s hoping to good and cooler than here. (Or winter if you’re down under?)

Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck gettnig dirty and gritty
Been down, isn't it a pity
Does't seem to be a shadow in the city
All around, people lookinig half-dead
Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head

Copyright by The Lovin' Spoonful

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