2026-07-20                             dispatches from helix
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   The house flooded, my furnace died and I went to San
   Francisco (and came back).

   I don't have deep thoughts about SF, but it seems like quite
   a liveable place and I enjoyed the weather (which was funny
   as I was with several people complaining about the weather).
   I met NS and had lunch; I'm glad I did, even if I was sadly
   rushed.

   Something apart from some complaining I can keep for a more
   personal journal:

   I find myself unwillingly in harmony with the weather.

   We had a few terrible days where it was mid-twenties (C) at
   night and mid-thirties in the day. I wouldn't have enjoyed
   those even when we had AC and I certainly did not enjoy them
   without.

   There is one room in our house with a little mini-split
   unit, so it's at least possible to cool off- we're pretty
   fortunate that way. But in general there was a week or two
   there where things were oppressively warm and/or humid.

   Now some of that weather has passed and it's high teens or
   mid-twenties through the day and we can have the windows
   open. I really quite like having fresh air in my house. My
   family over-use AC (imo) and so I keep the windows closed
   most of the Summer to avoid wasting the cool air / bringing
   in unconditioned air.

   Now that no one can put the AC on, the windows are basically
   the only tool for controlling our conditions. Open the up at
   night, close the ones that face the sun, crack a window if
   there's some wind to drive a breeze.

   I no longer feel that huge divide when I step inside or
   outside -- the condensation forming as a blast of cool air
   hits me or the "omg" mugginess of suddenly encountering 60%
   humidity. The outside is now just "more" of what the inside
   is. A bit hotter when it's hot, a bit cooler when it's cool.

   Don't get me wrong: I really am looking forward to having
   heating and cooling that work again. We're going with
   heat-pumps for our heating too, which is pretty expensive to
   install but I much prefer the idea of compared to burning
   natural gas (what we did until Canada Day).