Sunday Snippets

--More thoughts on Vacation Bible School here.  Did you miss my VBS Arts and Crafts wrap-up?  That's here.

--I'm hearing from various friends around the country who are sweltering--temps well above 100 degrees, and that's not the heat index, that's the actual temperature.  Our record breaking temps are 96 or higher.  People here complain about the humidity, but it's really not bad compared to other Southern places I've lived.  Spend the summer in Columbia, South Carolina with no AC--now that's hot and humid weather!  We usually have a sea breeze in South Florida too.

--No, the difficult days for me down here are usually in late September and October, when we still have that sultry summer weather and the rest of the country enjoys Autumn.

--I'm reading more apocalyptic lit than usual.  I just finished Colson Whitehead's Zone One (zombies in New York City!) and I'm reading Karen Thompson Walker's The Age of Miracles (the rotation of the earth begins to slow!).  Waiting in the wings?  Kristen Iverson's Full Body Burden, about growing up in the shadow of the Rocky Flats nuclear plant, an apocalyptic story rooted in reality--and thus, likely more terrifying.

--You might notice that the Walker book is just released.  How did I get this book?  I requested it from the public library.  I saw one of the first reviews of the book, in this article in The New York Times.  I got such a thrill from seeing that I was first in the queue!  Of course, I quickly requested a few more titles.  First in the queue again!

--Cheap thrills are the best kind.  Free thrills are even better.

--Hard to believe it's already July.  The summer zooms by, as does the year.  Strange to be reading a book about the rotation of the earth slowing and adding extra minutes and hours to the days, during this time when it feels like my life is speeding by me.