I had a friend call me up this morning and ask if I’d like to get together for some breakfast. I’m always up for both eating and talking (and especially for both of them together), so I took him up on the offer. By the time we were done, the morning was well underway and my writing time had all but disappeared. But it was worth it. The book review I was going to post today will be held over until tomorrow or Monday. For today, I’ll ramble and get a few things off my chest.

Weather - It has been a long, hot week. On Tuesday the weather took a strange and nearly unprecedented turn with the heat index climbing up to 47 degrees Celsius. That, for my metrically-challenged American friends, translates to 117 Fahrenheit. My wife and I eventually surrendered to the weather. I packed up my computers and deserted my upstairs office, opting instead to setup in the kitchen immediately adjacent to the air conditioner. We dragged mattresses to the basement and all slept down there for the past three nights. It worked out quite well and no doubt saved us from several excruciatingly uncomfortable nights. I have been living in Toronto for all my life and, while I can remember some hot days, I don’t know that it has ever been this hot before. So much for “the great white north.” White hot north is more like it! Thankfully we had a huge thunderstorm come through last night, bringing with it rain and much cooler, less humid temperatures. And there was great rejoicing.

Co.mments - If you are like me, you enjoy posting comments on other people’s blogs, but soon forget where you posted. A new service, Co.mments, provides a solution. The site will track comments on any blog article. You can then use RSS or a page on their web site to keep tabs on the ongoing conversations. I’ve used it to great effect over the past few days. In fact, I’m even thinking of adding a button on my blog so people can automatically add conversations, though I will wait first to see how this service catches on. Either way, it is a great use of RSS and is a valuable little service.

Email - I got an email yesterday and thought I’d ask you if you can figure out what it describes. I’ll give two options and you can decide, based on this excerpt, what the person writing me was describing. Here’s the quote: “they will target the weakest, will keep her in the corner until she dies, then will pick the next weakest and do the same…” Was the person describing a) the behavior of a kind of fish I am hoping to add to my aquarium or b) his middle school aged daughters? It could go either way, couldn’t it?

Rap - I mentioned last week that I picked up Voice’s rap album (click here if you want to know what I said about it). I generally listen to pop or rock music and am comfortable driving around town listening to such music, even with the radio up and the windows down. It is, after all, just rock. But somehow I feel awfully self-conscious listening to rap when I drive. I can’t bring myself to roll down the windows. I guess I just feel like such a poser, like an old guy who’s trying to be cool even though he is completely out of his element. And so I still listen to Voice a little bit, but only with the windows rolled up. Sorry, Voice. It’s not you…it’s me.

And that’s it for me. The lease has just about expired on our car (minivan, actually), so I have to take it to the dealer today and figure out what’s next. I hate cars and hate putting money into cars. And yet they are a necessary evil.