September 29, 2010

Reeling

It's Wednesday morning, September 29, at about 5:45 AM. That I'm posting this at all after the last three days is a triumph of sorts. Unbelievable. Well, fuck it: if extreme heat is going to be a precipitating cause of my demise, it had better damn well be historic! And it was! As you may know, on Monday Los Angeles experienced the highest temperature ever recorded since they began noting such matters in 1877: 113 degrees in downtown L.A. I live not far from downtown, so it was about the same here, perhaps a little cooler in my apartment (maybe only 105!). Sunday and Tuesday were pretty bad too, but Monday was truly unreal.

So I'm basically catatonic. I've tried not to move at all except when absolutely necessary; moving my fingers to type this is about all I'm capable of. But I did want to let you know that I'm still here after a fashion -- especially because a number of you were so wonderfully kind and generous in response to my plea. A multitude of thanks to you all. My gratitude is immense. I'll be able to pay all the immediate bills, and I should have enough to get some limited medical attention.

I'm going to wait a few days (unless some clear health crisis hits in the meantime), both to see how I'm doing generally and until it gets cooler, which it now appears won't happen until next week. The rest of this week isn't going to be nearly as bad as the last several days, but it still won't be comfortable (high 80s-low 90s in my area until Sunday or Monday). But it would appear I need medical help of some kind very, very soon; I doubt I can go on this way much longer. I am very averse to going through the 911 experience again barring a clearly life-threatening emergency, so I'll see what (cheap) alternatives are available.

I don't expect my brain to be back in gear until next week, although I've noted a few developments in recent days that have prompted some thoughts for future writing. And I still have a huge backlog of planned essays to get to one of these days.

So I hope the work will continue soon, although I'm unable to specify exactly when that will be. Once more, my great thanks to all of you who have been so kind. And now, more rest for me.