It was very warm yesterday, and the day before. The day before I mentioned -- just more random gushing about my air conditioner and how wonderful it was to be cool.

I'm not going to talk about that today.

I'm just going to mention the media. We had Warnings, you see. Power consumption was at an all time high, as we used our air conditioners to cool our houses during the heat wave. We would run out of electricity, they said. Don't use any nonessential power, they said. T.V. comedy shows like The Daily Show With The Gratuitous Name of the Sub-Par Host Tacked On the End did bits on the ungodly killer heat and the sucking up of all our precious precious power.

About nine last night, my air conditioner popped off. Now, I just got a new circuit put in specifically for it, so it's not supposed to do that. And given the Dire Warnings, I was concerned. So I walked over. Well, the fan was still going. If I turned it up it started blowing cold air again too. But it seemed fine.

I began to get suspicious. I opened my door.

It couldn't have been above fifty degrees out there last night. It was almost cold, rather than cool. Today, it's grey, and the mist is on the water and there's a little rain. I'm wearing a long sleeved sweatshirt and I'm very comfortable.

This to me is funny. Maybe not to anyone else, but I love it when people get their undies in a bunch over something and have it fizzle while they're doing it.

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The question of electrical power and the infrastructure comes to mind in all this anyhow. Just how much electricity are we using if we can stretch the power system to the limit just because it's warm? Looking at my own apartment (and the computer and all the peripherals, the air conditioner, the television, the VCR, the Satellite dish, the CD player, the treadmill...) I'm forced to assume it's "a lot."

Back a year and a half ago, during Ice Storm '98 (I love the names we come up for things) we were about two weeks without electricity, using dangerous kerosene heaters for warmth and grills mounted on propane tanks to heat food and water for tea. I don't remember that time as being less fun than my life is now. In fact, it was quiet enjoyable in ways. Certainly we survived, during subzero temperatures no less.

At the same time... here I am, typing my journal on a computer, to post it on a second computer for you to read this in the first place. Entirely electronic. There isn't a physical copy of this journal anywhere.

Makes a fellow think.