As I mentioned, I get another 3 AM wake-up call tomorrow due to needing to be at work on the Day Jobbe due to the person in India for whom I'm the backup being on PTO. Oh, well, I hope I can knock off work no later than Noon tomorrow. And on the bright side, it should be cooler at 3 AM and I can open the front door (we do have a screen door) and get more cross-ventilation through the house.

Not helping my rest was having to work late today, and also I was expecting a call that never came. I wish the people who were holding me in place had at least dropped me a note telling me that they didn't need me this afternoon after all.

Lisa and I went to Reno to find her a quality camera bag for her to use on her trip to Europe this summer, after which we went to WinCo Foods for groceries. It was relatively late in my day when we turned for home, so I decided to get a mocha frappuccino from Starbucks. Those of you who follow Kayla's journal will recognize the irony of this. Fortunately, there was no issue with me going in to pick up the drink that Kayla ordered for me.

I got the notification from Bank of America that the Euros I ordered were ready to collect, so this afternoon, Lisa and I drove to Reno/Sparks to collect it. First we went to drop off the recycling, because Lyon County has no collection nor drop-off for any sort of recycling, and the Washoe County (Reno) drop-off closes at 3 PM. After doing that, we drove over to the Sparks Bank of America. There I realized to my horror that I'd left my wallet at home! I went ahead and drove home (being careful to stay under the speed limit) and as we neared home, I thought that possibly we could get my wallet and get back to Sparks before the bank closed at 5 PM.

We got my wallet and we headed back to Reno, which just under an hour before the bank closed. Just as we passed USA Parkway (the road from the giant Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, traffic ground to a halt. Apparently lots of businesses change shifts at 4 PM, and they all flooded onto westbound I-80. There are no alternative routes.

It would be several miles before the next exit, so we just ground our way along. The traffic started to speed up again, and we concluded that there was no accident or incident blocking traffic: just too many cars and big rigs for the freeway to handle. We decided to see if we could possibly get to the bank, which is on the east side of the Reno/Sparks metro area, before they closed. Somewhat to my surprise, we got there with just under ten minutes to spare.

There were no other customers in the branch. The clerk went to the vault, got the cash, counted it out for me, and I signed for it and left, with them locking up as I left. Whew!

I suggested to Lisa that we go to the Sparks Nugget and get our favorite meal there, the shrimp pan roast at John's Oyster Bar. The restaurant is named for John Ascuaga, who built the Nugget and grew it until he and his children sold it to corporate interests when John retired. We like that the casino kept the name of the Oyster Bar and preserved its nautically-themed decor.

It had been a long time since Lisa and I had been there together. We initially had the place all to ourselves, but more people arrived while we were eating.

Lisa initially wanted to go grocery shopping, but in deference to my having to work tomorrow, agreed that we should just go home. Amazingly, the heavy westbound (toward Reno) traffic from USA Parkway was still creeping along on freeway, but westbound (toward Fernley) was wide open. We'll go back for groceries in a few days.

The temperatures from Friday through today have been hot: anything at 37°C or higher (human body temperature) is actually dangerous, since it means your body can't shed heat. Thus I was very much not looking forward to having to make a trip to Reno on Saturday. Because Lisa is going to Europe later this year (that's why she won't be at either Westercon or Worldcon), she wanted me to get her some Euros so that she would have cash upon arrival.

(Why not just draw money out of an ATM when she gets there, you may ask. Well, some of you may recall that on my trip to Barcelona a few years ago, I had the misfortune of having an ATM eat my card. I even managed to get the attention of someone inside the bank, and they shrugged and did nothing about it. Now in that case, I was at a Eurocon surrounded my friends, staring with Cheryl Morgan, who could all help me out, loan me cash, let me play the "Banco de Credit Card" by everyone paying me cash at a meal where I put the bill my card, and so forth. Lisa has exactly one debit card, and if something happens to it, she's stuck. I understand the worry.)

So checking Chase (where her account and debit card are), I found that the only way to order foreign currency requires going in to a branch, ordering it, and then coming back a few days later when the ordered currency arrives. That meant going to Reno/Sparks on Saturday in that heat. Yes, the Astro has air conditioning, but it's been not working as well as it should, and I already know how much trouble that van is with no A/C, given that it failed during the Winnipeg trip. And because of the setup on that account, it would have to be me making the order; I couldn't send Kayla in on my behalf.

On Saturday morning, I had an idea and checked my Bank of America account. Aha! You can make an online foreign currency order to have the money delivered to any branch (the nearest one to me is in Sparks), and you don't have to come to the bank until the money arrives. So instead of slogging into Sparks in the heat, I made the order. The money should be here in a few days, and the temperatures are forecast to decline from dangerous to merely unpleasant.

Including delivery charges, the approximate conversion is USD 6 = EUR 5 through BofA as of Friday.

The next step of the Summer Reconfiguration was today. The high temperature here in Fernley was 36°C. Not Las Vegas or Phoenix hot, but still not comfortable. It was time to get the air conditioning going, such as we have here.

( Welcome to the Swamp (Cooler) )

Our high temperatures here in Northern Nevada don't get so awful as down south. It rarely reaches 40°C, which is where the cooler can't keep up. Fortunately, just like we rarely have days colder than -10°C in the winter, those very hot days don't happen much either. When it gets that hot, it's hard to do anything at all, and even the computers start straining and clocking themselves down to prevent overheating.

One key thing here is how cool it gets at night. Most of the time, it cools off sufficiently that we can open the windows and get some air circulation that dumps the hot air out of the house and brings in the cooler overnight air. It's that desert thing again. There will be times when that doesn't happen, and then it can get very unpleasant. Also, if wildfires send smoke our way, keeping the windows open also messes up the indoor air quality. But we mostly get by.

It's only been a short time since the last fire in the fireplace, but Memorial Day is the "unofficial" start of summer, so it was time to reconfigure the front porch.

( Summertime )

This gives us full use of the porch, preferably for sitting outside in the evening after things have cooled down a little bit. From here we can watch the birds in the East Lot.