Blood really is thicker than water

 

Vintage Portuguese postcards I found. I do not know this cow. 

The human body functions best at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. When it overheats and bcomes dehydrated, the blood thickens. The heart has to pump harder and it and other organs can be seriously damaged. When core body temperature rises too high, everything breaks down: The gut leaks toxins into the body, cells begin to die, and a devastating inflammatory repose can occur. Part of the insidiousness of heat related deaths is how quickly they can happen. 

So HOW ARE YOU GUYS??? The San Franciscans have won the lottery this summer with the fog; we are drooling over the beach pictures sent by Janette and Albert. Here we had a few days where we felt the breeze from the blessed Atlantic Ocean and thought we would escape the worst. Then we were slapped with a few days of hot, smoky hell and reconsidered our life style choices - specifically the ones that involve coming to Southern Europe in July and August. Thomas has taken to reading magazines with Yachting in the title, and brochures of Finnish real estate. 

When you live with 91 year old war survivors who don't cool the house, but diligently heat the pool, you develop a sixth sense that is part spiritual and part thermodynamics. (The latter is of course the study of the relations between heat, temperature and energy.) We are experts on many things: we know how long we can play at high noon on a hot tennis court and how much Gatorade will be required. We know there is not enough Gatorade in the country to get us to play at 4 pm. We know the exact path through the golf course that has the most shade, and the most breeze. We know now that an area of heat next to an area of greenery will create a breeze that makes you want to keep living. Most importantly, we know which restaurants have have air conditioning. 

The good news about heat is you pay attention. You pay attention to the exact moment before you enter a cold, familiar ocean; and the bliss of entering the only room in the house that has air air-conditioning (snuck in by Thomas a few years ago). You pay attention to the song of ice cubes landing in your glass, and marvel at the amount of sweat on the front of your hands and under your eyes. You pay attention to any news story that says we will fight climate change. 

Things are better now, I am sitting in the office here and there is a little breeze coming from the open door. It is a regular summer day in the Algarve: I don' t have a wash cloth on my head and there is no smell of smoke. 

Luckily we are heading to winter soon. I enthusiastically bought cashmere sweaters here in preparation and then learned that Sao Paolo in winter is basically like San Francisco: 65-70 in the day and 55 at night. The packing is going to be its own blog entry. I have three nights at semi sophisticated restaurants in Sao Paolo winter- including the 7th best restaurant in the world that is devoted solely to pork, They raise their own pigs apparently and then kill them. (pray for me). Then we go into the Amazon jungle where I am required to wear beige and sweat a lot. In the form required for the hotel there (called the Cristallino lodge) we were asked how much we weighed (for the life preservers) and what animals we were afraid of. (I wanted to ask how much time they had; but settled for crocodiles).  Thomas and Frederick left it blank thinking that they were indeed afraid of certain animals but didn't want to miss out on seeing them. Charlie probably wrote strawberries and left it at that. Lastly we go to high altitude - dangerous sun during the day and freezing cold at night where I will be standing outside. 

In my next life I want to start a travel clothing store where you can input your trip and they send you every thing, already packed. 

Did you all know that we had the shortest day every recorded? Apparently the earth spun faster than it has ever before. Also, if one person fires a bullet horizontally, and another person drops a bullet at the exact same time, the two bullets will hit the earth simultaneously. 

OK I have to get this up because I am presently in Sao Paolo and it is amaaaazing. Tomorrow into the jungle we go, so I have to write fast. 

até à próxima Portugal