Lament

By some unhappy coincidence, DH and I made our annual outing to the U.S. Open on the day distinguished by the highest temperatures (93° F or 33.8° C) and lowest air quality of the tournament. Gentle readers, it's your choice: read on or skip the ordeal and scroll down to the sock.

The brutal conditions – it's usually 10° F (5° C) hotter on the courts than in the stands – had the unexpected effect of making some matches last longer because it was harder for players to summon the extra energy needed to break service and win. The weather was unkind to spectators too. We dragged our butts from court to court, heeding the admonitions to stay hydrated and making way for emergency personnel tending to those who didn't. Even my pix seemed to suffer heat exhaustion – in this one the ball looks like it's merely rolling on the court, when in fact it was in furious motion.



Several of the courts have fine views of the Manhattan skyline. Or at least they usually do. The new One World Trade Center is finally tall enough to be visible (it wasn't last year), even though the rest of the skyline was obscured by haze. It's the stub sticking above the middle flag pole. (The Empire State Building and Midtown would be to the right.)



Needless to add, although I took a sock, it was 'way too unpleasant to knit. Also, as a wholly random aside, DH wants me to note here (lest he forget again) that the frequency for the low-power radio commentary is FM 88.1.



As for this sock, the color for September Sockdown is red. Back in June I started a pair of red Lantern socks for June Sockdown, because the symbolism of the lanterne rouge (the last qualifying finisher in the Tour de France) is ::cough:: appropriate. So much so, I haven’t yet finished them. Rather than frog and restart them for September, I (naturally) started a new pair of red socks, Fake Cross Stitch Sox by Claudia Tietze.

Laments have the effect of teaching one to be cautious, but so far, so good.