I remember we found shelter in the cave

I had to go home at lunch to take care of laundry and some miscellaneous errands. Since it was the middle of the day, most people got off at the more popular spots. Since I was reading, I didn't notice that I was the only person left for the last stop, by faculty housing. I didn't ring for a stop since, well, they always stop there. But the bus driver didn't notice I was on either, so he skipped the last spot and rode into the bus depot. This wasn't much farther away -- in fact, until a renovation a couple years ago that spot was the last stop -- but the driver got wrapped up in taking care of some kind of work and didn't open the door. I felt like it'd be awkward to ring the bell now, and while I tried to say something my natural shyness overwhelmed me, so I ended up just standing in the aisle and hoping to catch his eye in the mirror without doing anything to draw attention to myself.

At dinner, I stopped at the Japanese food kiosk, where I was the last person in line. I'd ordered something simple, though -- teriyaki chicken -- while everyone else had the more complex sets, so they had mine ready before anyone else's. That's a bit unusual, but not very. The cashier insisted on putting the plate (and miso soup) on the only food tray out there, which was somebody else's. I tried to apologize to that person, and get another tray, and I can't say why this struck me as embarrassing since I really had so little to do with it happening. I'm just good at turning the ordinary into the embarrassing, is all.

They're predicting that the worst of the haze may be passed, thanks to the oncoming monsoon season. Yesterday was fairly drizzly throughout, and today we got a couple good thunderstorms while I could stay safely indoors, with the result that the particulate count dropped quite a bit. Now we just can't see too far because of the humidity, and can't see the sun because of the clouds rather than the smoke. It seems like a lateral move.

Trivia: Niagara Falls Power House Number One, constructed 1891-1898, had ten turbines of 5,000 horsepower each, which operated a two-phase alternating current generator. Source: A History of Mechanical Inventions, Abbot Payson Usher.

Currently Reading: The World Inside, Robert Silverberg.