15 Kamal 166 B.E. (Baha'i Calendar)
Drumbeat in my head: Blind Faith, “Can't Find My Way Home”

About a year ago, I wrote a blog entry about “laptop nomads” seeking air conditioning. I was talking about how, in the hottest part of the summer, people like me living without air conditioning would pack up their laptop computers and find refuge in various neighborhood cafes.

When I wrote the article around this time last year I was still living in downtown Madison in the student neighborhoods, and as such there were plenty of people without air conditioning. Now I've moved two miles east, into a neighborhood with a wider variety of people and incomes. More people here can afford air conditioning.

I can afford an air conditioner, too, but for some reason I haven't bothered to buy one. Maybe it's because most of the time, I get by with fans. I should say, though, that it has been a relatively cool summer.

But the last couple of weekends have been hot and humid, and as such, I've spent a good part of them indoors in cafes on my laptop. Last Sunday, I went from the Washington Hotel Coffee Room, to Fair Trade Coffeehouse to Mother Fool's. Today I started the afternoon at Cafe Zoma and ended up again at Mother Fool's.

I have no shortage of things to do on my laptop while in the cafe. I'm still working on a treatise that I started back in May reflecting on my career.  I've written twenty pages on the subject and have made it as far as 1996. I also continue to do journal writing.

I know what you're thinking--”Get a life—and an air conditioner while you're at it!” But maybe a part of me wants to just honor the season. In some parts of the world, when the weather gets hot, people slow down and become more contemplative. Maybe I'm doing the same thing in my own way.