Frying on the sidewalk

It hit 100 degrees in Columbus today. Vicious heat and climbing humidity makes it painful to be outside.

We were supposed to go to the Doo-Dah Parade, but the idea of being in a crowd in the heat and sun was not appealing to either of us. Went to the Jury Room for an early lunch then headed over to the Bicentennial Park fountain to see what was happening.



Quite a bit, the fountain was flexing its muscle. There were a few dozen people enjoying the fountain on a hot afternoon.



I ended up walking through it to cool off. It worked!



Columbus showed well in the heat. We even spotted a Blue Heron looking for lunch in the river as well as a Great Egret that flew off as I started to take its picture.



A train showed up as we crossed the Main Street Bridge.



My wife and I were separated for a few hundred feet, but we got back together.

Nearly melted on the way back to the car. Went to see Brave, which I liked to a point. It was gorgeous to look at, but the script lacked precision. A lot of the humor that was geared towards kids, and that was not very funny. Still, toward the end, there were a few kids in our row sobbing. Good film. I expect better from Pixar though.

After that we hung out at the place we were married and went to dinner at an extremely loud Grandview Cafe. It was 100 degrees on a Wednesday afternoon and the music was Saturday night at 11PM levels. Not impressed.

Waiting for the 4th of July

It's a great thing to have functioning air conditioning in the car, especially during this heat wave we're having. Driving across the city in this heat to pick up my son every day is a chore sometimes, at least the car is getting decent gas mileage.

On Saturday I noticed there was be a ticking noise out of the engine when I accelerated. Not loud, yet, but a noise that would not quiet down over time. Luckily, I was able to get to the mechanic before they closed today.

I've written many kind words about Mad Hatter Muffler here. They were busy, even in the late afternoon. There were three people ahead of me, but they work fast. Car was on the lift in less than half an hour. I was called into the work area by the mechanic, who pointed at a small hole in the exhaust by the catalytic converter. He was familiar with the car, had worked on it in the past. Asked me if it was getting louder. Said he'd weld the hole shut. No charge. The whole thing took about forty five minutes.



COTA, the city's municipal bus service has been negotiating with its bus drivers for some time. On Sunday night, a new contract was tentatively agreed upon by the union after a federal mediator stepped in. However, the drivers decided to strike today anyway. This is very, very bad public relations by the workers. Regardless of the compensation of the executive board, this crass act, after a weekend of storms and massive power outages in the city, is a slap in the face of the people who relay on them not only during difficult times, but every day.

Had to drive my wife to work today. Luckily a friend of ours graciously gave her a ride home. If they're still on strike Tuesday, this is going to wreak havoc with a lot of people's plans to go downtown to see the fireworks on Tuesday night. Picking up wife up from downtown late Tuesday afternoon is not something I look forward to.

Edit: and the union has rejected the proposed contract.