Today, the sun works for me!

It's gotten hot again in Los Angeles, as I found out yesterday when I rode from my house to the garden plot in West Hollywood. Coming back around 1 pm, I really felt the heat.

Today was laundry day, so I broke out the clothesline and used the heat to my advantage. Even the jeans were dry in under four hours!

I've recently been using the recipe on this blog to make my own laundry detergent. The commercial stuff's gotten so expensive that I finally snapped and refused to buy it anymore.

The home made stuff works well, and combined with air drying makes the clothes smell really good (but not perfumey), and for some reason they're less stiff when air dried with the home-made stuff.

Finally, I can think again.

It's been hot. Not seasonally hot for Los Angeles, but much too hot and much too humid.

One of the bad things about living near the beach is that none of the apartments have air-conditioning. The reasoning is that it never really gets hot at the beach, so you'll never need it.

Normally, this is true - even if it's hot during the day, it cools off at night, but for the past few weeks it's just been sweltering around the clock, meaning I've just not been able to gather my thoughts enough to do more than moan about the heat and take cold baths.

Thankfully, the heat's finally broken and it's once again beach weather - right now it's cloudy and overcast and I've never been happier!

I've not been doing much bike riding due to the heat (no, really, it's been too hot to ride), but I've got no excuse now!

Also, gas has shot up to over $4 per gallon, so driving doesn't look all that attractive now, even with the car's air conditioner.

I feel so left out!

We've had two smallish (4+) earthquakes here in Los Angeles in the past 24 hours, and I didn't feel either of them.

I don't mind earthquakes (although I prefer them to not destroy the city like the 1994 quake did). I guess I'm just kind of used to them, but this many so quickly makes a bit nervous that we might have a big one - there's some thought that hot weather we're currently having brings on quakes. The 'Shake and Bake' effect, if you will.

I'm going to stock up on my emergency water, just in case, and then I'm taking the bike to the beach and staying there until it cools off! Like many folks who live near the beach, I don't have air conditioning so huddling in my living room watching Netflix isn't an option.

The advantage of riding the bike to the beach, is, of course, that I don't have to pay for parking. The disadvantage is riding home all sandy because I can never really get it all off in those beach showers, but it's better than sitting at home, slowly roasting.

Food, drink, and non-biking stuff

I'm now contributing at the TJays Yay or Nay blog - a place to write about everyone's favorite grocery store, Trader Joe's.

Come on over and watch me wax poetic about paprika!