I'm not allowed to buy books for a while.

Not until I catch up on the shelf near the bed, the five more on the Kindle, the audiobooks.... Yeah, I am not buying a single book in May.

I am finally reading (listening to) Ken Follet's Century Trilogy.

I'm just getting into the second book, Winter of the World. I listened to it while stuck in a huge traffic jam leaving Hollywood Studios on Saturday night. While stuck in an epic traffic clusterfuck exiting the park, and OMG they need to fix that before the new Star Wars experience opens, I was listening to the story of the rise of Adolf Hitler.  Change the names and a few details and damn, this is now, except and Thank GOD for small favors, Twitler is a brainless cartoon version of the original ruthless monster. The fascists seem mighty damn familiar. It's not exactly escapist reading at the moment, but it's an amazing and gripping story of families whose lives are interwoven through the events of history.  I'm sucked in, even though I really should be reading something totally escapist right now. It's breathtakingly good, and I feel like I'm late to an amazing party.

It accompanied me on my half hour fast walk in the swampy heat this evening. The clouds had built up and we were promised rain, but barely got spat on before the clouds blew away. Our guaranteed thunderstorms tonight keep getting postponed. It may or may not be raining when I get up tomorrow. April was the driest month since 1898, and May ain't looking much better.  Lakes are very low. Expect the price of celery to skyrocket if this doesn't change damn quick. Meanwhile, the HOA is sending letters about the condition of the lawn at the house, while the grass in the common areas is turning brown too. Yeah, we'll get right on that.

But I did it! I got off my butt and went out and did a 15 minute mile pace for 35 minutes, and I did sweat, but I did not die! And I do have that amazing device called a shower, so I availed myself of it before putting on clean jammies.   My sweaty clothing joined a small load in the wash, and I will do it all again tomorrow, and for all the tomorrows, because this is something I need to do.  This is my summer humidity awful program, and I will do it every day, unless I am actually in danger of being struck by lightning.  But that would mean it's raining, and that will be something to celebrate.