And by rights I can’t complain—I work in central A/C and knock wood it’s been functioning. I don’t have it nearly as bad as everyone who works outside or who doesn’t have central A/C.

But it’s still oppressive as hell. This continuous high pressure isn’t doing my mood, my joints, or my sinuses any good, and I’m trying to get High Tide churned out when what I really want to do is hide in a dark room until all of this is over.

And that keeps getting yanked away. We were supposed to have temps in the 90s on Monday and Tuesday with some rain. The forecast is now back up to triple digits with no relief in sight until the middle of the month, if then (the only relief is that temps are supposed to top out at 100°F on 8/14, and that can easily change). So yeah, I’m not in the best of all possible moods.

It didn’t help that I went in for my follow-up with the oral surgeon (I had a gum biopsy done two weeks ago for some persistent gum irritation) and they still don’t have the report back from the pathologist. Neither the oral surgeon nor I think that this is anything serious—based on the placement of the gum irritation and my wacky immune system it’s far more likely that I’m having a reaction to the dental cement used to anchor the two crowns on those teeth—but it also means that I don’t know for sure. So that’s hovering at the back of my mind along with creeping dread of what our electrical bill will look like this month and other general financial concerns and yeah, not the most conducive environment for writing.

But I’m doing it anyway because that is my job and I need to keep my readers entertained. So Episode Three of High Tide will come out tomorrow on Vella, I’ll continue to edit Crystal Blade so that I can send it off to the editor, and I’ll keep glaring at the sun.