Good evening on this summer evening. It’s somewhat sticky this evening with dewpoints creeping up to 65 or 66 but there are a million stars above and dozens of fireflies lighting up the trees. 76 currently, 65 late.

Tommorow is expected to be another hot one with dewpoints in the upper 60s and temperatures around 85. One moderating factor will be the clouds and the likelihood of rain from thunderstorms. This means it may cool off at times. It’s mid-summer so the heat and humidity is to be expected.

I swapped the battery on my phone and I’m back in business. The moisture just killed the battery when kayaking. Without my smartphone I’m totally lost. It has all my music and podcasts, along with GPS apps, real time bus info, Waze, WordPress, social media, photos, and of course email. I don’t know how I survived before last October when I first got a smartphone. Looking at waterproof cellphone cases now.

This month my phone plan was upgraded for free from 3 gigabytes of data to 5 gigabytes. That makes me happy as I sometimes would run low on data on the winter months when I was stuck home a lot, playing on my phone. Getting throttled sucks. It used to be I averaged about 100 megs per day, so the new 170 average means I have a lot more data to play with. I can listen to WAMC online while taking the bus home at 5 pm to catch up on the news with the extra data.

Misplaced my backpack and I couldn’t find my good headphones, so I went to Walmart and picked up another pair. I just wear cheap ones at any rate, and I had to get to the store to buy some lunch meat. I also broke down and bought a big box fan. I have for years used a small desk fan but I figured that the bigger fan would keep things cooler upstairs on hot evenings. I don’t have air conditioning at home and I have zero interest in getting it. Air conditioning is really bad for the environment using oodles of energy and toxic gases, makes one lazy, and avoiding the outdoors on hot evenings and weekends. I doubt when I eventually own an off-grid house that I’ll ever have the voltage supply ample enough for air conditioning, so no reason to get used to having the artificial cool at home. The Potholers can keep me cool on the weekends.

While I concede the smartphone is nice I still don’t think I will ever have Internet or television at home. It’s just not something I believe in. When I want to get podcasts or do any kind of heavy Internet use with my laptop there are public libraries with Internet connections vastly faster than I can get at home. But for checking social media, the phone is fine. I also am quite fine with taking the bus to work everyday and avoiding fancy purchases except of course for my jacked up truck. Big Red wouldn’t fit into any parking garages in the city. I also don’t normally have junk food at home except for the occasional box of cookies and take the trash and recycling I don’t use for fire starting when camping to the transfer station myself. I just like the simplicity and I find television to be kind of glitzy and confusing. Spending time in the woods is my entertainment.

I just saw a bunch of cops cars and firetrucks heading up the road with full sirens and lights. That’s unusual as they usually turn off the sirens in this residential area. It must be quite the emergency.

Oh well. It’s getting late. Sleep well.