fun in the summer sun

But I’ve never seen the Icarus story as a lesson about the limitations of humans. I see it as a lesson about the limitations of wax as an adhesive.  -Randall Munroe, XKCD comics

If Icarus was a California resident,  he probably would have been cited by the California Fish and Game commission long before he collected enough wing feathers for trafficking in an endangered species.  But assuming he managed to avoid Cal OSHA with his homebuilt wings and actually took flight today,  he would not have as far to go to reach the sun.  Today the Earth was at aphelion,  the closest point, in its slightly elliptical orbit, to the Sun.

As I was mounting my flags late this afternoon,  I was thinking of my past Saturday adventure hiking in the high desert.  The reason the heat we met while hiking in the pocket valley was not as troubling for me  – is that is was the same temperature (or somewhat less!) as I felt today putting up flags at home.   I originally planned to get up early in the morning cool to install the flag mounts.  But the dogs will want their walk before it gets hot.  And should there be any doubt,  with a hot day forecast tomorrow,  I don’t expect to emerge out of my air conditioned home till dusk.  I do not need to put on wings to appreciate the Sun.  I have solar panels generating electricity to run my air conditioning.