We followed our usual Monday morning routine today – go to the JCC for personal training outside, then go to Trader Joe’s to pick up a few things. Monday morning seems to be the best time to go to Trader Joe’s – we arrive around 9:15, during “Senior Hour,” when the store is uncrowded (today, we didn’t have to wait at all to get in or to pay) and well-stocked, and we can get in and out quickly.

PG&E was warning everyone that they might have to institute rolling blackouts again today – I got a call, two emails, and two texts before lunch. They suggested pre-cooling the house to 72 and then turning the A/C up to 78 at 2pm when the peak load period was expected to begin (I wonder if the pandemic has changed the timing of peak load) – so we did. The house stayed fairly cool during the afternoon; when we got home from our post-dinner walk, we decided to open up and use the fan in hopes that it’ll get a bit cooler overnight.

Dinner was another experiment – Miso-Glazed Fish from the New York Times. We’d bought a tub of miso paste early in the lockdown; I’m not sure what I had in mind when I bought it, but this was a good way to use some of it. The recipe was easy to put together, but the actual cooking was slightly more exciting than I wanted – I used our small broiler/convection oven, and with the shelf in “broil” position, we started seeing small explosions. So I moved the shelf down and then had to bake the fish for a few minutes to finish cooking it. Next time, I’ll use the “real” oven – but it was too hot for that tonight.

Stay cool!

We were awakened about 4am by a very loud clap of thunder, something that is very unusual here. When I got the newspapers at 6, the sky was dark and ominous and there was lightning flashing to the east and north. But there was no rain, and the temperature had only gotten down to 78 degrees.

Rain came later – not much, but more than we usually see in the entire month of August. We were even out in it for a bit – it was mostly pleasant.

By 10am, the clouds were gone and the temperature was on its way back to triple digits. When I went out to make dinner on the Traeger at 6pm, it was “only” 94 and it didn’t actually feel too bad!