Song of the Week #64

Sadly, this song only makes me think of Marmite.

Euro 2020: Round of 16 Thoughts

Hmmm, well I guess I need to rethink this post because I was sure that Germany were going to beat England.  So let's start with that:

- A headline I saw before the game read "England vs Germany vs England Neuroses", and I thought that was hilariously accurate.  And then I read a headline after the game saying "England advances to quarterfinals with impressive win over Germany", and I thought that was hilariously inaccurate.  Impressive?!?!  Come on now.  Let's not get carried away - yes to beat Germany in a major tournament for the first time in forever is a big deal - but we were so so lucky.  Germany had the better chances, and were slightly better during what was a tight and tense game.  I still see so many faults with England's selection and formation - how Jack Grealish doesn't start is beyond me, he is a game-changer, and I don't think Harry Kane should be captain or a starter.  For a team with a preponderance of young, exciting, offensive players, we should be playing as many of them as we can and play an attacking style at a much higher pace and tempo.  And, most importantly, we should be playing in our red jerseys - our best jerseys.

- And let's look at the draw, what an amazing opportunity it is for England.  Their half of the draw is so open - perhaps even Denmark are the favorites on that side now after their demolition of Wales and having the most to play for.  It's yet another quirk of how messed up the tournament structure has been.  England can probably feel justified in playing this horrible conservative way if it gets them to the final - and despite not being the hosts, have had this important advantage over everyone else of playing all but the quarter final game at home.

- I didn't expect this, but France going out was a big shocker.  In fact, a lot of the favorites kind of struggled - Italy and Spain had to survive extra time, Holland and France disappointed.  Those 2 games on Monday involving Spain and France were really chaotic and really good - such massive momentum swings.  Being engrossed by those games definitely helped me endure the baking temperatures.  Whereas the theoretically more interesting Portugal-Belgium game was such a snoozefest that I actually fell asleep during it and missed most of it.  But Belgium got through, and they are still my big favorites to win it all.    

Even Higher Triple Digits

I haven't checked the news this evening, but I'm fairly sure we set new record highs in Portland and Seattle today.  Where I am, it got up to 108F/42C today.  Unbearable.  Even as I'm writing this, just after 9 pm this evening, it's currently 90F/32C in my living room, about the same temperature outside.  And the thermostat in my bedroom reads as 96F/36C - I've just turned my portable AC unit on, so hopefully it will cool down enough for me to be able to get some sleep.  Absolutely unbearable.  There is some relief coming tomorrow, but it's still going to be quite a hot day (in the 90s).  But hopefully I can at least go out for a hike tomorrow morning - I haven't been able to get out for some exercise for the last few days, the heat is just too much.  I did some Ring Fit Adventure this morning, and I don't think I've ever sweated so much.  I had to consume so much liquid today just to stay hydrated.  I saw a rabbit this evening basking under a tree next to my driveway, so I decided to leave a bowl of water out for it - he didn't look in good shape, so I hope it helps.  Apparently the roads in our region have been cracking under the heat.  And a load of cooling stations have popped up around the region to help people out - apparently all the local hotels are also booked out, at exorbitant rates, as people seek accommodations with AC.  A historic day.  Naturally, the next big risk is from wildfires. It's no surprise that we now have a burn ban in effect (hopefully my neighbor will abide by this!).     

Triple Digits

Although I didn't quite reach triple digits yesterday (I think it maxed out at 99F/37C), I did today.  According to my weather app, it got up to 103F/39C and felt like 109F/43C where I live.  Inside my home it got up to 87F/31C where it's supposed to be cool (and that's downstairs, it's probably a lot hotter upstairs).  I bought some bananas on Friday and they are already over-ripe today thanks to the heat.  I am a hot, sweaty mess.  This is horrific.  You get some relief at night when it's a bit cooler, but even with my portable AC unit going in my bedroom it's still uncomfortably hot.  I'm almost tempted to try to sleep outside tonight.  At least it's not humid.  This certainly puts some perspective on where I want to retire to - could I handle these hot temperatures in retirement?  Probably fine with AC - the lack of which is really turning this into a nightmare.  Most people don't have AC here - which is why these extreme temperatures are such a big deal.  Just for perspective - Portland, Oregon reached an all-time temperature high yesterday and then beat it today at 112F/44C, just north of the border Canada reached an all-time temperature high today in British Columbia of 47C, and Seattle reached an all-time temperature high today of 104F/40C.  And tomorrow is going to be worse.  Oh my.

Spiders

I don't know if this is because of the warm temperatures, and that I've been leaving a lot of my windows open overnight, but I seem to be finding more spiders in my home than ever before.  And they're bigger than ever before.  And even if I don't find spiders, I'm finding their cobwebs everywhere.  I'm not the kind of person that scoops up spiders in a glass and deposits them outside somewhere.  Nope, they get squashed.  Perhaps this is their revenge - I am being targeted.       

Fan + Ice

I notice a common hack for cooling a room involves putting a bowl of ice in front of a fan.  So I decided to try that today.  And it didn't seem to make a jot of difference.  Very disappointing.  Thank god my freezer has an ice dispenser, so I can experiment further (current forecast has a high of 106 Fahrenheit [41 Celsius] on Monday, so I think I'm going to need to do everything I can to cool my home down!).      

Scorchio!

Oh boy, we have some hot weather forecast this weekend.  In fact, so hot that an excessive heat watch is in effect from Friday afternoon through Monday evening with “Dangerously hot conditions with afternoon highs in the 90s and near 100 possible Saturday through Monday”.  100 Fahrenheit is about 38 Celsius.  That’s just where I’m located – I think it is going to be significantly hotter south of Seattle, with an excessive heat warning there and potentially record-breaking highs in SW Washington and NW Oregon.  I’ve decided to cancel my plans to spend a few days in Oregon, and I’ll try to go sometime after 4th July instead.  The Oregon coast, which is where I was planning on going, is probably a little cooler than inland but is still going to be uncomfortably hot for what I really want to do e.g. hiking.  I suspect this summer could be a bad one with this kind of heat so early in the season – wildfires could be a real issue later on in the year.  And I’m already struggling with how hot my house becomes with just a little bit of heat, so I might end up sleeping downstairs this weekend.  I did use the second Prime Day to order some heat control window film that I’m going to try to put up on a couple of windows upstairs to see if that helps block some of the sun rays coming in.  And today, I came across an excellent deal for one of those Dyson bladeless tower fans – it is factory refurbished so less than half the retail price, but I decided to chance it and I’ve ordered one because they are supposed to be really effective. 

Post-blog note: the forecast has been updated, our Excessive Heat Watch has now been upgraded to an Excessive Heat Warning - "Dangerously hot conditions with highs warming to the 90s and peaking above 100 degrees on Sunday and Monday".  Yikes.