August

You may have noticed that I didn't post anything during August. I dislike August.

I also dislike January, February, and July.

Two of these months are bitterly cold and dreary. The other two are saunas.

We had a heat wave again this year. Heat index temperatures were around 116 degrees Fahrenheit by day and over 100 degrees Fahrenheit by night for about two months. I couldn't bear it. My activities were pared down to the bare minimum. Even Mimi didn't want to linger outside on her thrice daily trips downstairs to visit the grass. My electric bill was one of the highest I've ever had. I had to run the air-conditioners non-stop.

I hate to waste four months of the year. That's a whole third of the year! I keep telling myself I won't let heat or cold keep me from enjoying my life. But I don't have a car and getting out hurts sometimes. The heat wave broke three days ago. I have my life back now.

Flowers for sale

A common sight in summer, near busy intersections, are ladies selling sweet-smelling flowers, gardenias I think. Hang them on your backpack, rearview mirror, or set them on your table to make your summer smell special, infused with the best of memories. The lady pictured here, near the entrance to a Shanghai subway station, gave me a second flower after I took her photo. I think that means we are friends. :-)

Random Summer Summary 2016

HOTNESS

You know it is hot when you have to travel to Thailand to cool off.

The heat index got up to 126 degrees Fahrenheit one day here where I live in the Middle Kingdom. Most evenings the heat index has been at least 100 degrees. Not every summer is this hot. For instance, any summer I am not here, it is not that hot. It wasn't that hot here last summer.

THAILAND

I am not in this picture and I did not wear a swimsuit, so don't be wondering which one of these Russian exhibitionists is me. 

Some day when I am full of energy, I will get the good photos off of my good camera instead of just showing you my phone photos.

Honestly, while in Thailand I saw the beach for about five minutes every day, usually just before the sun set, but I wasn't at the beach much. 

I have been on three trips this summer. I have been to Taiwan, Thailand, and a desert area of China. I did fine on each trip, but when I got home from the trips I had trip recovery issues. Maybe when the weather cools down, I can recover more quickly. My health still drags me down. 

FRIENDLY MUSLIM LADY

One day near the end of Ramadan, on one of my trips, I was out in a public park and the Muslim lady above invited me to her house for dinner. She was very friendly and insisted. I told her I would visit her house, but I wouldn't eat because I'd already eaten dinner. I got there and she started cooking, because she didn't believe I'd really already eaten. I wasn't really planning to eat her food, and she wasn't planning to eat it either because she was still fasting. So finally we just took photos and laughed and talked about things. Here she is at the sink washing the food she planned to cook for me. Her hat is what Muslims wear. Sometimes they wear scarves, but the purple hats are easier to throw on. 

She told me that her husband was staying with their daughter for a few weeks, because he wanted to eat and his daughter would cook for him. So this lady was willing to cook for me but not for her own husband.

UNFRIENDLY MUSLIMS ... OR NOT?

One day, in my own city, I went to eat at a Muslim restaurant. The Uighurs who work there are very conservative, cover up with scarves, and are very unfriendly. You can say hello to them and they won't even acknowledge your existence. People go there to eat because the food is good, not because they want to be acknowledged as human beings. 

So imagine my shock when I went to the restaurant one day and one of the women came over to TALK TO ME. She wanted schooling help for her children and thought I would have information to help. Her husband came over and we exchanged contact information. I texted a Chinese friend to say I was at this restaurant, and that Chinese friend wrote back asking if they were being mean as usual. I wrote back and said "NO, WE ARE FRIENDS NOW!" My Chinese friend thought I was being sarcastic and didn't believe me! Haha.

I've been back several times. The last time I was there, a torrential thunderstorm came up. The sidewalks became rivers. I had to stay at their restaurant a really long time. I thought I could chat with them more, but they were busy running the restaurant. 

COFFEE SHOP IN THE RAIN

When a mild break in the rain came, I ran across the pathway to a coffee shop and hung out until the storm ended. It was one of the most beautifully decorated coffee shops that I've ever been in.

                  

I felt bad that Mimi was home alone during the storm though. Poor dog child.

IN CONCLUSION

Besides going to the doctor for appointments, these are the sad little highlights of my summer so far. Thank God I've been able to do this much!

I've tried to write blog posts more often, but the internet always seems to cut out when I have time to write. Thanks to the Great Firewall of You-Know-Where, I have to use a VPN to write on this blog, and VPN slows down the internet and doesn't work at all sometimes. I do the best I can with what I have.

Please pray for good health for me and my family (my parents in particular). And, as always, please pray that cancer stays away from my body forever, please.

Mimi joy

Mimi and I have been going on walks in the neighborhood lately, right around sundown when the weather is bearable. Mimi LOVES to get out the front door of the house to see what's going on in the neighborhood. Access to the fenced backyard just doesn't hold the same appeal for her.

Indoor exercise always seems to involve re-arranging things in the house. Mimi knows that toilet paper doesn't belong in the living room, so she brings it there to get a rise out of me. Smart little doggy knows how to have a really good time. She's the best. I wouldn't trade this little doggy for anything.

The calendar says summer, the thermometer disagrees

This is the weirdest summer ever. Last year we were sizzling in the hottest heat wave since records had been kept. This year, August temps are only in the 70s and 80s range. I suspected the cooler weather would only last a few days, but it has lasted a few weeks and the forecast shows no change. I have never in my life experienced a summer this cool. It feels weird, and wearing summer clothes is out of the question. In August. I don't know how to act.

I know the weather was cooler in America some this summer too. What's going on?

Chinese people find it amusing that foreigners (that's us) always want to talk about the weather. But I just do, I can't help it.

(Like my butterfly photo?!) :-)

Mid-summer's eve

Lencrafters called and said my new glasses were ready. After living most of my life with perfect vision, age has caught up with me. My arms are no longer long enough to read ANYTHING. So at 4 p.m., when the sun was not too hot, I took off on my e-bike to get my new glasses.

The thick humidity and the buzzing cicadas were proof that summer is here. The heat index is only around 100°F; last year the heat index was 20 degrees hotter than that, every day, for two months. This year's temperatures are so much more bearable!

Lenscrafters did an excellent job. I can see everything perfectly now. What a great thing that Lenscrafters is in my city!

Since I was in that part of town anyways, I decided to get a pedicure. I went all last summer without a pedicure -- I just wore socks and tennis shoes to keep my feet soft and clean -- but I have to go back to Thailand next week and my toes may be exposed to the outside world by sandals. So I felt inclined to spruce them up a bit. 

Before I got the pedicure, I exchanged some DVD's at the DVD store, and bought a big cup of steaming black coffee at Starbucks to take with me to the pedicure place. I went to Dragonfly, the most relaxing spot on earth, for my pedicure. The zen-like ambience, beautiful decor and the smell of sandalwood wafting in the air at Dragonfly make the outing a special one.

After the pedicure, I went around the corner to the local Tex-Mex restaurant. I love that place. It reminds me more of America than any place in this whole country. It is spacious, well-decorated, and has mariachi music. The food is awesome, and the waitresses are friendly and efficient, even without the incentive of a tip. That's another thing I like about eating out here -- no tax and no tipping added on to your bill.

Then it was dark, and I had half an hour ride to get back to my place. The city was lit up beautifully against the night sky. The ancient-looking city wall along the moat looked regal and enchanting. Hundreds of people crowded the parks for line dancing/exercise, kite-flying (the kites were lit up, don't ask me how), shopping and strolling. 

It was just lovely. I love the summer evenings here, and hope to enjoy them more in the days to come.

Photography day

If I didn't go outside until all my work was done, I'd never see the light of day…I'd never see the moon either, come to think of it. So today I decided the work could wait. I needed an outing. So I took my camera (which is technically part of my work) and headed out.

 Here is part of the city skyline; the photo was taken from atop the old city wall.

 Canals run through the city.

 Skyscrapers, rivers, and many, many bridges

A lonely little tea shop atop the city wall had no customers, just two pet birds sitting out in the shade and breeze.

 Thank you God for making so many flowers pink! I truly love them.

Water, rocks, trees, flowers, humongous goldfish, pagodas, tea houses -- a little slice of Chinese paradise.

 Pagoda -- I can see this from the balcony at my apartment.

 Rooftops

A steaming cup of green tea to quench my thirst at an outdoor tea shop ends my outing in the best, most relaxing possible way. Thermoses like the ugly blue one pictured are the world's most superb thermoses. Ask anyone who has been to China and they'll confirm. Anyway, the tea shop gave me a cup with green tea leaves and a thermos. If I wanted, I could sit there all day and refill my cup with the thermos's steaming hot water.

I really must find a way to do this more often.