Doing lots of steps. My crazy Fitbit. And thinking about air conditioning.

According to my Fitbit, now getting rather old and unreliable in the battery department, I have taken 22,461 steps! Amazingly even when it’s telling me it has a flat battery, it keeps on counting my steps. It won’t speak to my phone app any longer. Weeks ago there was some kind of change in the system and for some reason the app thought I was a new Fitbit user. I gave up trying to connect properly. And then when it really did run out of battery I recharged it and now for some reason it tells the time 7 hours and about 10 minutes behind the actual time. It’s quite amusing really. And besides I now wear a plain old fashioned wristwatch as well.

Anyway, it seems I have 22,461 steps today. I jogged slowly round the village in the cool of the earlyish morning. Later our daughter and various offspring turned up with some stitching that needed doing. (She often brings repairs to our house for me to deal with!) This led to us going on a family stomp along the Donkey Line bridle path to the Lime Kiln cafe where refreshments were consumed. Our return journey was interrupted by a visit to the local garden centre where some of our number wanted to buy a small tree but was persuaded that we could not carry such a thing. 

This was followed by a stop at a playground. At that point Granddaughter Number Two and I decided to hop ln a bus that conveniently came along, leaving Granddaughter Number Four and Grandson Number Two playing in the park and then walking home. granddaughter Number Two and I made coffee ready for the arrival of the others.

At some point after coffee, and after I had done the aforementioned stitching, Phil suggested a walk round the millponds, as ha had not been out to stretch his legs. And off we went. Tht’s how I managed 22,461 steps.

Even though it was quite late in the afternoon, almost early evening, it was surprisingly hot. Is this the start of the next heatwave.

Here, by the way, is a Ben Jennings cartoon on southern Europe’s wildfires.

Here’s a link to an article about the Liberal Democrats stating that new homes being built now should all be equipped with air conditioning. British homes are not equipped for hot weather. Neither are we really prepared for the sort of life-style where people sit around outside in squares and on street corners socialising and trying to catch whatever cool breezes are around. I read recently that London is particularly badly prepared for hot weather - too much concrete and not enough trees! We are quite lucky, personally, to have an old house with a cool basement. And we have a relatively shady garden too. I”m pretty sure that building air conditioning into every new home - and adding air conditioning to existing houses - is not really going to help with the climate crisis. But something must be done, as our daughter keeps assuring me. And she should know as she spent the last few weeks of the summer term in an overheated classroom with insufficient ventilation while the heatwave continued outside. Expecting children to learn in overheated schools is counterproductive. As well as tackling the climate crisis, we need to adapt our way of life.

Between wildfires, fire-clouds, earthquakes and tsunamis, it seems that the world is protesting and punishing us for not looking after it better.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!