You know it's a hot day when the cicadas come to visit.
Took the OAC Rambler and rode East on a tropical Saturday afternoon.
As I crossed the Mystic River into West Medford, the More Than Different Summer Basketball Tournament was in progress at Dugger Park in the heat of the day. When I returned at the end of the afternoon, the courts were empty.
This was my usual Saturday afternoon hills-and-traffic drill on the roads of Medford, Malden, Melrose, and Stoneham (with options on Wakefield, Saugus, Lynn, and the Northern Strand), except that the weather gave it a somewhat different character: hills-and-heat-and-traffic-and-heat-and-heat. I was hydrating conscientiously, and soon enough began to resemble a drip hose riding a bicycle. Mercifully the traffic was lighter than usual, perhaps a vacation effect.
Only a minority of the drivers remaining seemed to have been crazed by the heat. And they can jump in the lake.
rod