驕陽似火，大地像被一把火燒過，熱浪滾滾，凶猛肆意。樹葉耷拉著，那已經被烤焦了的頂尖部分卷起、發黑。南加州破紀錄的四十多高溫把人像囚犯一樣禁錮在牢籠裏、空調下，慵懶得不想動彈。想想我們其實是被加州的天氣寵壞了，這樣的天氣在江南的夏天還不是很常見的？想起2010年回國遊北京，那樣的夏天，真像生活在蒸籠了，在洗桑拿浴，每分每秒地想逃離。所以還是知足吧，這樣告訴自己。

The air-conditioning has been humming along for a whole day. Southern CA has been plagued with unprecedented heat wave for three days of <> 100 F. Last Friday saw 108F, Saturday 102F, and today 95F.  Getting off the work around 6pm on Friday, I braced the heat towards my car.  The car wheel was blistering hot to touch, not to mention the heat inside after being sunbaked for a day. Rolling down the car window would not help as it would in a normal situation, as the air outside was just as smothering. Craving for a watermelon, I headed to a nearby Costco. The air-conditioning in the car worked laboriously, and before it cooled down, the Costco was in sight. Gulfed by the sweltering heat from the ground, I walked briskly to the entrance, sweating. The watermelon was fiound next to a food section, where shields of curtains or cardboards were for the first time hanging or placing over the meat, fish or processed food.  The lighting was also turned down a bit, shedding a dimmer-than-usual light. Would the store close soon? The thought flashed by and was soon denied after asking a service man. At the checkout, I was drawn to the blinking lights and loud buzzing sounds from the far end of food section, warning people that the temperature may be under a certain level.

The first thing I did upon reaching home was to water my backyard. What I saw stung me. Prey to the scorching sun, the tender leaf tips of avocado trees were withered and burnt. A large patch of black berry leaves was like flamed in a fire. The last few ripening berries it carries were hanging down, dried, shrank and lifeless. I turned big the water hose, sprinkling all over the leaves, branches and the ground, but I guess it was too late and too little to quench or revive them.

We confined ourselves to the air-conditioning home on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday morning, I stepped out to the yard to do some cleaning in the shade, with the music from iPad on by the side.  About ten minutes later, the music suddenly stopped. It turned out that left in the half sun, the iPad got too hot that it needs to cool down before it works again. IPad refused to work in the heat, and would also like to be in air conditioning room:)

Fortunately, by the time I wrote this journal (10 pm), the heat finally subsided. With the air-conditioning turned off and the windows wide open, the cool fresh wind breezed in, giving us a hope that tomorrow would be a better day.