Company's coming so I have to keep this short

...but had to share my HUGE FAIL at trying to cool off today. The heat has just been intense with no let up, even at night. This morning Ivan suggested we go into Cordoba because we had a few things that needed to get done there, and then we could hang out for a while in one of the air conditioned malls. Sounded great to me!

What wasn't so great was the rolling black-out that followed us everywhere we went. EVERYWHERE. I am not even kidding. I actually wondered if the whole city lost power because first we stopped in the southern edge of town and the power went out while we were dropping keys off at our friend's, then we went downtown and voila! no power. Finally we gave up on errands and just headed to the mall, one we had not been to before and, wouldn't you know it, they didn't have power either. *sigh*

[One shop owner told Ivan the city has been having rolling black-outs every single day, so they're without power for hours at a time. Sort of hard to run a business that way, I would think. Felt a little like we were back in a third world country. Bet those selling generators are doing brisk business!]

Anyway, at the mall we grabbed something cold to drink and sat down, hoping that just sitting still would help. Not really. Our options were to get back in the car and drive home right away; not really appealing because mid afternoon is when it's hottest and the a.c. in the Fiat can't keep up. Plus the thought of spending another afternoon in our inferno of a house was more than we could handle. So we took option #2: we stayed at the dark, un-air-conditioned mall where most of the stores were closed. Because hey, it was DARK and the sun couldn't hit us with its deathly hot rays when we were inside.

We did find one clothing store that was open even though they didn't have lights, and they were having a 50% off sale so we went in. Tina found some really cute blouses, a pair of jeans and a dress but since the only mirrors were in the back WHERE IT WAS VERY DARK, she opted not to buy anything at that point. We kept walking around and right.on.the.dot at 5 p.m. the lights finally came back on! Yay!

By the time Tina tried everything (plus some) back on and checked out -- which is when I FINALLY started cooling down -- it was time to head home as we have company coming. Thankfully the sun was hiding behind the clouds, providing us some relief from its intense heat rays AND the air conditioner in the Fiat Uno functioned moderately sufficiently on the drive home so that we arrived feeling moderately sufficiently refreshed.

I think next time we'll just drive around in the car.

Anyway, home is still hotter than all get out so we'll probably finish off the bottle of bug spray so we can sit out back on the [somewhat] cooler patio. ¡Hasta luego!