骄阳似火，大地像被一把火烧过，热浪滚滚，凶猛肆意。树叶耷拉着，那已经被烤焦了的顶尖部分卷起、发黑。南加州破纪录的四十多高温把人像囚犯一样禁锢在牢笼里、空调下，慵懒得不想动弹。想想我们其实是被加州的天气宠坏了，这样的天气在江南的夏天还不是很常见的？想起2010年回国游北京，那样的夏天，真像生活在蒸笼了，在洗桑拿浴，每分每秒地想逃离。所以还是知足吧，这样告诉自己。

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.