Well summer has air-burst like a tactical nuclear warhead over Coney Island. Which I still haven seen this season. Coney not the bomb. It was 238f degrees, and humid in the Emerald City this afternoon. So of course I went out for a long walk in the sun.
No I didn't end up in the hospital though I did think of going. This as I hung half off a park bench gasping for air, and clutching my chest. The phrase , "...What da Fuck were you Thinking!!" did come to mind.
They were handing out bottles of water outside my local library. With special attention to kids, and elders. I didn't even have to ask. Some nice NYU grad student came up to me as I stumbled by, and shoved a bottle in my hand.
"Are you alright sir?"
Aw crap do I look that bad? Well okay I'm 138, and wandering about on the surface of the sun. So yeah I could see her concern. Actually I wish they was handing out ice cream I could 'a used a hit of that. Yeah that stuff will kill me now, but so what I likes it.
Wait it get's better.
Another NYU do-gooder comes over, and offers to help me into the library. For those of you reading this in the civilized world. Thanks to the new Hotter Climate in NYC public spaces in summer are now Thermal Shelters. This includes libraries,...just like science fiction.
Also I imagine these nice kids are trained to see folks in trouble, which besides gasping for breath I had no idea I was in. What the heck I let them walk me,...they held me by the arms. Which was sweet. I like that folks are nice to old folks, and kids. The "Baby Snatching" by armed enforcers at our border with Brown people has awakened humanity is some.
Anyway they dump me a nice chair, and I'm good. Wait again,...get's even better. One of the librarians asks me if I would like a book or magazine to read while I got better from the heat.
Did I just win the humane society lotto or something?
Hey I'm game. I asks if she could find the "Collected Prose of Walt Whitman" the Penguin edition if it was handy. See smiles, and goes. A few minutes later she, and Uncle Walt appear.
I'm figuring this is candid Camera or whatever passes for that now. Anyway there I spent the balance of the afternoon. In the air conditioned womb of the same library I've been going to since I was six. I moved back to my old 'Hood after some decades of ambiguous adventures.
Today was a good though profoundly hot, and interesting day.
Very glad to hear these helpful people showed up, and even provided you with quality literature. It seems like an antidote to the toxic effect of those cops from that other time. Some people are actually human.
ReplyDeleteMy weather widget informs me that Seville, Spain is experiencing similar temps and will do so for months to come. But I think the humidity is lower there. Still, you can see why nightlife is big there and everyone takes a siesta.
Z
Seville sounds the ticket!
ReplyDeleteBtw it was at my local library around the corner where I found such humanity.
I've only gone to the big main branch once since my near death experience with cops there in early Spring. My friends offered to take me since I said I'd never go back.
It's a trauma thing. I doubt even being in the company of white friends would save my life. On YouTube I noted being is such company has never helped.
I may in fact never go back.