When you live in a house without air conditioning, then indolence is part of the schedule. Yesterday I got up early, did laundry, watered the garden, and then, as the heat settled in, I sat on the couch in front of the fan and worked on a poem and read Pride and Prejudice. This is a book I have read a thousand times, and only now has it occurred to me that Mr. Darcy's pride, superciliousness, etc., are simply the carapace of a very shy man. Being married to a shy man myself, you'd think I'd have identified the symptoms earlier.

After some couch sitting, Tom and I drove into town and spent the afternoon at the bowling alley, where I bowled two games with scores under 100 and one game with a score of 168. I had four strikes in a row! I wish I knew what the hell I was doing and could repeat it. But I am the queen of erratic. After bowling we went looking for more air conditioning and ended up in a coffee shop drinking ice tea and playing cribbage. Then we ventured back into our hot little house, I did some more garden watering, and eventually we took a cab back into town for our dinner-date at Piccolo. It was the first time we'd been there, and it serves excellent central Italian food: extremely fresh ingredients, mild bright flavors, a summer delight all around. Afterward we took a long slow walk home in the cool of the evening, along sultry Back Cove, under the scent of the linden trees, as excitable teenagers shot off fireworks along the shore.

Today we'll have more Hot to deal with. In a few minutes I'll go outside and do the morning watering, and before long I'll have drag myself to the grocery store and solve the conundrum of dinner. We might go to the art museum later. We might go play pool at Ernie's Bar around the corner. Actual useful work can wait for a break in the weather.