TheSecondTimeAroundEngland

 The temperature at 8:30 p.m. is mercifully sinking. It is 68 degrees and will continue downward until sunrise when it will be 58. Ahhhh. At last. I think we have been in this heat wave for at least a week, and I am heartily grateful to be out. I stayed up late last night to bake chicken in the oven and do a couple of loads of laundry. Even at midnight last night, it was far too warm to sleep. I didn't use the dryer but put everything on hangers and hung them throughout the flat. I turned off the oven as soon as the chicken was done, and started the dishwasher. I am thankful for air-conditioning, but I think I would still prefer having to endure a few days of this heat wave weather in England than months on end in the closed-environment of an air-conditioned home. Sometimes, I open a window and inhale the fresh air from outside and it makes me feel like all is well in the world. We have our windows open nearly every single day of the year. The young missionaries came at 10 this mor...

 It got up to 91 degrees today. The humidity went down to the fifties, but is beginning to climb again. It is currently 63%.  We went for a walk. We participated in a couple of missionary zoom meetings. I have done little in the way of housework, but have spent hours sending messages to Pathway course members and trying to transfer their credits from one place to another. I have been assured this problem will be solved by the start of the next semester. For now, I have a hard copy that I am marking up with four colored pencils, and I go from one page to another to another to another to see if everyone has dotted the i's and crossed the t''s of all the hoops they are to jump through in order to receive credit./ It is a truly wonderful program, but I can see why the requirements are there. Since it is college credit, they can't just hand it out like candy. If it is to be worth something in the real world, and if it is to be from a college that can be trusted, then they mu...

 SK arose early today to take the sisters into London. They didn't have to be there until 11, but SK always worries about getting a parking spot. Underneath Hyde Park Chapel is a parking lot, that has spaces for about 12 cars, but on busy days 16 to 18 might crowd in. The problem with that is that no one can get out until the last one to park leaves.  He drove them in, no doubt entertaining them with all kinds of stories and jokes. He stayed in the chapel waiting an hour for the meeting to begin, sat through the training meeting with the young elders and sisters, then helped load up the car (good thing I didn't go- he had to put luggage in the front passenger seat), and brought the sisters safely back to Oxford. He came in late in the afternoon and took a nap.  At 5:30, we walked a mile to the head of the river where we boarded a small boat, shaded with a canopy. At six, our young pilot pulled out on the Thames, and we were off - traversing Oxford by water. It was suppose...

 I am not wishing the time away - really. I am still treasuring every moment - kind of. But the last three days of England's heat wave have been trying.  It is a little after 11 p.m. right now and the temperature is 72 with 73% humidity. There is no breeze and we have all the blinds and windows shut against the heat of the early evening. It won't be cool enough to warrant opening them for a few hours. By morning, the humidity will be in the high 80's - and the temperature for the next two days will be 84 and 83 respectively, with lows in the low 60's.  You probably don't care about all that, and I understand. It is boring, but it is also my life right now, sitting around in the lightest weight clothing I own and feeling damp. We have 2 1/2 fans that are spinning furiously.  But - two more days and we will be back to high temperatures of 72 and lows of 53. That is my idea of summer. My migraine was worse this morning....I once again tried to sleep it off. Finally, I ...

 July nineteenth started out much the same as yesterday, warm and sticky. We sleep with our bedroom window open (they are actually french doors) and we have a fan on. We do that year round. It isn't as wonderful as sleeping under a feather duvet on a 38 degree night, but it isn't miserable either. The low tonight will come at 4 tomorrow morning, hitting 63 degrees. The humidity is currently 73% and it will climb to the mid-nineties before daybreak. I believe the lowest it got today was 45%. "We are in the midst of a heat wave!" the news is screaming. My weather app solemnly pronounces "Disruption due to extreme high temperatures." And of course, we are told that people are dying because of heat-related conditions. I feel profoundly sorry for them and anyone else ailing due to heat conditions. I am ailing due to heat!!!! I know I am completely unbelievable when I say I do not like the heat, and in fact it makes me sick. Yes, a woman who has lived in the Arizo...

 I will be happy to put this day to bed, and I am also happy that it turned out to be a day that we didn't have to go anywhere. I awakened with a migraine. I took my usual headache potion, which really didn't do much for the pain. So SK carried on with the day, taking the sisters to and from church.  Since it was the other ward's turn to be in the church this week, we watched on Zoom....well, one of us watched. I turned the Zoom call on in the bedroom, and listened for about 5 minutes before I drifted off to sleep. I managed to stay awake for Sunday School and another meeting with the missionaries at 1, but didn't participate, didn't have the camera on. The rest of the day has been the dreaded "migraine hangover - the time when the medication has kicked in but you still feel a bit woozy and sickly. Later in the day, I rode along with SK to make some deliveries to a couple of young adults.  It got up to 90 degrees today! The humidity was 88 when I got up around ...

 In a nutshell, I cleaned and cooked and cleaned, and worked on my last lesson, I also watched some training videos about how to report grades. It is a circuitous route, stopping in Canvas to check out each week, and each person for updates and then transferring to Wise to report what has been done and what may be lacking. I'll be very sad if I can't give everyone a passing mark, but I think there will be some who did not do the work. I'll see how it plays out. We had Francis come for dinner this evening. I love that guy. He is the math genius - seriously. He is interviewing for jobs in the coming weeks, and he will probably have no difficulties finding something. He could probably fit into a team that sends a man into space - easily. We had a couple of hours together. He has a delightful sense of humor and is just fun to converse with.  I love his laugh. He grew up in Togo, he is about 28, and movie-star handsome. His native language is French, and so he has that charming ...