Cityscapes

of electricity couldn’t have come at a least opportune moment. After the floods we got as high as 131 ˚F in the shade… and there wasn’t any air conditioning!

***

Everybody clung to comfort. They got used to the idea that it was their right, a duty of the authorities. When the portable electric generators and air conditioning begin to be a more common item, the greenhouse effect in the valley will get worse. Any temperature over 79 ˚F will be a pretext for turning them on, including in the winter. For good reason everything happens in Mexico City first: they want to reach hell first so they save a spot for all their relatives from the rest of the country.

***

I could have realized: in Montreal the summer reached almost 86 ˚F some days; in Madison they told me that winter hadn’t been so harsh; cities in Baja California recorded record temperatures; the rain wouldn’t cease in Mexico City. I could have warned them, my life was divided between Central Time Zone and Pacific, I knew how to juggle between the void of two time zones. And I did nothing.

243