Heating Up

Regner Park was a popular place to cool off this afternoon.

Saturday was West Bend’s first 90° day since August 26, 2024. It was an unapologetic, swaggering, “here I am in all my magnificence” summer day fit for hamburgers, ice cream, and listening to the Allman Brothers Band. It was a rare occasion on which my neighbors with swimming pools didn’t look like complete idiots. It was my kind of day: the kind of day that the true Wisconsinites hate to the very bottoms of their souls.

And Saturday was only the beginning of our three-day heat wave. Late on Sunday night, my oldest kid and his cat came to visit, as the air conditioning in their Milwaukee apartment had failed, making sleep impossible. Today was hot and windy again until rain broke the spell in the evening. I rode my bike on each of those days, troubled less by the heat than by the high winds. It never really gets hot here unless there’s a howling wind from the south.

Now, even I admit that 90-something should be hot enough. But if the temperatures are going to reach the mid-90s anyway, then I wouldn’t mind just a little more. We haven’t had a 100° day since July 4, 2012, and I have been sitting on this Garmin Connect goal for too long:

You will notice that I have already earned the companion Frosty badge. No shortage of opportunities there. But it may be a while before we get so close to 100° again. Good weather last week contributed to my most productive week on the bike so far this year: 145 miles in 10:20 of ride time. That’s still not good enough, obviously, but things are moving in the right direction. And my weight is dropping: -5.5 pounds since June 1. An emphasis on Zone 2 riding, better diet, and more productive sleep seems to be working.