Magnets and Air Conditioning

Please tell me I'm not losing my mind. The other night we went out for some pasta at Rigatoni's in Castro Valley and we discovered that the knives and forks are magnetized, as you can see in the photo. This is not a trick. You can attempt to do this at home because I doubt there's any danger.

The spoons, for some reason, wouldn't stick to either the knife or the fork. And nobody thought to check whether knives would stick to knives or forks to forks though having an answer to those questions would have only left us more befuddled.

I worked in food service at one time and I can't think of a single reason why this should be. We mentioned it to our waiter who wasn't in a very talkative mood but he already knew about it.


If only we could look forward to afternoon thunderstorms the heat wouldn't be so bad. But this week started off hot and it's just getting worse. I start to get miserable and feel sick when it starts to get warmer than 72° outside which, by coincidence, is how warm it is outside right now at 1AM. The temperature inside is 76° so I won't be going to bed soon. Those nice flannel sheets are going to have to wait for a while.

Still, there are brave souls who are coming to the zoo with children, pushing those SUV sized strollers up the hill, sweating profusely and some swearing profusely at their kids who seem to be oblivious to both heat and the rigors of walking uphill. It hit 90 yesterday in San Leandro so at the zoo where it's always warmer, it must have been 95. That's hot enough for anyone.

When I picked Brad up at the BART station he said it felt like Las Vegas but I was thinking, "..yeah, on a day with 48% humidity!"

The bengal tigers were playing in the afternoon sun but acting a little grouchy. A large snarl took us off guard as I was talking with two visitors on the upper observation deck, causing us to forget what we were talking about. The camels didn't seem to mind much but would occasionally go over and splash in their little pond. The lions were nowhere to be seen. Other docents were also scarce, all of them giving up and leaving before 1PM. Big, floppy hats are common and today I saw the largest umbrella ever; large enough to cover a family of three.

So until Mother Nature's natural air-conditioning returns, which it will, at least I am glad I've chosen to spend my time at the Oakland Zoo where the animals are respected, the public loves coming there, and nobody minds if you're found sitting in the shade unable to walk any further for a while.

It's only recently that I've seen cactus plants in blossom. Nature inspires me and I hope it's easy to see why. The complexity and detail that can be seen in the cactus flower here astounded me when I leaned over the railing and peeked inside. Every day brings new discoveries, new visitors and new experiences. This is how I imagined "retirement" would be, just not this hot and not this early!