Live always at the edge of poetic possibilty, even in the face of severe prose. - Walter Bruggemann


Tuesday, March 25, 2008

They're Killin' Me Man..

Really. Helllllp! It’s been hot the last couple of days and very dry. I’m not used to temperatures in March, in the 80’s. That, coupled with blue skies and dry, arid, VERY dry atmosphere, well, I’m dying.

And then, when I woke up this morning, when, what to my wondering, parched eyes did appear – not tiny reindeer but yet another dust toting khamsin. It wasn’t as bad as the one last week, but oppressive in its own right by my New England standards.

My skin is dried out, my nasal passages barren. My shriveled lips can barely mold themselves around the cap of my water bottle. So close yet so far from any mode of rehydration.

Then, if just being outside wasn’t enough, I boarded Egged bus #19 for classes at the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus. No air conditioning, in fact no air moving whatsoever. I know they have AC, I’ve experienced it before. But what about NOW when I really need it??

People’s heads were dozing and dropping. Haredi woman just looked straight ahead with a non-descript glaze over their eyes. Haredi men, with their black overcoats and black hats, just boarded the bus and stood. When I disembarked at the Hebrew University, went through security, got to my classroom, I had already drank two bottles of water. Then, a two and a half hour lecture.

They’re killin’ me man, I mean killin’ me.

3 comments:

sabba17 said...

I've totally dehydrated in Jerusalem in March. I ended up in the Bait Cholim for a two litre infusion.

RICHARD W. WARNER said...

Stop complain'n Lucy.
Me

davydean said...

Psalm 42 comes to mind as I read your blog today. As I can only imagine your experience might be like the dry heat one summer in the midwest when the corn would ignite by roadsides. Seemed like an endless cycle of heat - longing for streams of cool water.