Beat the heat?

sunset yesterday evening

Not sure about the weather conditions at your place...? ^{Maybe you would like to tell me about it as I don't watch the news or the weather forecast; also, it is always better to hear from real people and their personal experiences and perspectives.}

What I can tell you is that it is just too hot here. It has already been for a while although I didn't mention it earlier.

They say it's another heat wave (on top of an already hot summer) that will intensify over the next few days, maybe even weeks. Who knows, our task is to manage our survival techniques. We can't do other things, only find suitable activities like...

Riding the bike! - _{It is impossible at 40 degrees Celsius...}

Go on a tourist tour of a village I last visited as a child, with school! - _{I don't want to get sunstroke.}

Write a post about a church I visited last Friday in Croatia! - _{Too hot to think or concentrate on anything.}

Write the continuation of a story I left unfinished many months ago! - _{same answer as above.}

A slight headache also wants to be near me. I tried not to let it invade my space, so I went out into the garden and saw some very pretty flowers, but capturing them in an equally pretty photographic composition is not my forte, so I let the idea go.

growing in the garden

It is a pity though, as so many gorgeous flowers pose there. The sun is threatening with its intensity so they have to beat the heat in their own way.

I continued with my activity of losing time using different inventions and ended up sitting on the floor with a map in front of me.

What the heck is a map of New York doing in front of me? To be more precise, a map issued by the MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority). It doesn't matter; what matters is that I finally got an activity that can make me focus on learning new things like how to move around New York City with subway, bus, railroad or use ferry connections. Getting to know about the possibilities of how could I travel from Manhattan to The Bronx or Queens, or even to Staten Island is a cool activity. Numbers, lines, stations and stops, bridges and tunnels, MetroCards and tickets - all of that could be quite useful... if we lived in 2006! 😂

Pfff, a small gap in time between this map and today.

it was colder on the floor

I need to start doing something useful for all of us. A book, the one that is by the map is a good choice, I hope you agree. It is titled A Little Treasure of Wisdom, Thoughts of Great Men. It contains quotes and thoughts of writers, philosophers, and other great men as the title says, and some traditional proverbs.

The book was open on pages 222 and 223 and served as a measure for comparison with the size of the map. Let me read a few of these quotes from the pages that were randomly opened up.

Everything passes and nothing belongs to us: family, spouse, children, our body and our wealth. So what is ours? Our good and bad deeds.

Indian proverb

It is a good one, it teaches me right now to say something of a greater value than the blah blah that I am still writing. 🙄 If you are still here, then let's see the next quote.

What's the point of galloping if we're moving in the wrong direction?

Rudyard Kipling

Yeah, that is why we should have clear goals and principles in our lives, recognizing the signs by the path that are showing us the right direction. No, it's not always easy to see and read them well; that's our human side of getting lost and finding again the right paths and directions. To be certain about things as...

Uncertainty is worse than any certainty.

Dragan Karanović

So true. Look, I had a situation a week ago that I wanted to share with you, even though it doesn't seem important at first sight.

I didn't obey! You hear it well - I was not obedient to those who wrote on the box of cotton earbuds that you should not clean the ear canal with these little things. Please note - never, ever use them for cleaning the ear canal as, apart from all the possible issues they can give you, you can feel the uncertainty as I did. The cotton tip from the stick somehow disappeared when I used it and I thought that it got stuck in my ear canal. I was sure about that, as to where it could disappear? I regretted so much my action and promised never to use them again. {I am thinking of throwing into the bin the box of earbuds, just not sure why I haven't done it already. I will blame the heat.}

So, back to the uncertainty. I shared the story with my family, they didn't see anything, I didn't feel anything in my ear, and we joked... more than 24 hours passed before I decided to go to the health centre to get checked out. The cotton tip was not there, it was not in my ear. 😳 That was a very happy moment for me as the uncertainty was worse than any certain outcome that this situation could bring me.

Lily is certain about some things - sleeping

I think I can leave the quotes from these pages here. However, I have an idea!

Playing a little game, anyone? 😃

If you want to hear a random quote today, please write a number between 9 and 292 in the comment section (that is how many pages this book has), and I will write you one (or more) thoughts or quotes from that page. Maybe it is something that you need to hear in the moment I write you the response. 🤷‍♀

In the meantime, I got some ice in the orange juice to beat the heat.