“Ain’t in awful the heat, ain’t it awful”
So goes the opening line of one of my favorite operattas, Street Scene by Kurt Weill and Langston Hughes.
The temperature has been above 95 for three days straight and every one is talking about it, and sweating it. I’m not sweating it, literally, and that’s something pretty bizarre. For the past 5 years, the summer heat barely bothers me. I get hot, I get flushed, I get dizzy, but I barely sweat.
Despite the heat, we took my daughter on cruise around the Hudson sponsored byKiddieCruise. (There are a few more pictures posted on my Facebook profile.) It’s hard to know if she enjoyed the trip. The company seriously blundered when they specifically asked parents not to bring outside food, and then did not provide snacks throughout the cruise. The food was rationed out in standard fashion the way most adult affairs would be handled. The fatal flaw is that you are dealing with the 2-8 year old set. You can’t tell them to wait 30 minutes to an hour for a snack. So my daughter was pretty crabby for a good portion of the cruise. Between that, and being afraid of Elmo and Winnie the Poo, (poor fellows walking around in those costumes), and the just over the top loud live band, which was very good by the way, it’s hard to know if she did have fun or not. I know she did enjoy the face painting, and the balloon twisting. She did not watch the magic show as it did not interest her in the slightest.
DH and I enjoyed the cruise a lot. The views were spectacular and being on the boat was soothing. And of course we always enjoy seeing Lady Liberty.
Afterwards, our entourage stopped in Brooklyn Heights and had icecream at Häagen-Dazs. They have reinstituted an old favorite of mine, Honey Vanilla. (Though my true favorite is Ben and Jerry’s Vermonty Python and Edy’s Spumoni). I look forward to seeing it in stores so it may accompany my pie alla mode, preferably a high quality apple pie.
Then we took a quick walk along the promenade and a short break in the playground for the kids to run around a bit. After a jam packed day, my daughter passed out in good order. When that happens, I feel as if my job is done.