Topsy Turvy

My neighbor told me it was 107 degrees in Sonoma when he went there yesterday and a friend in the East Bay posted on Facebook that it was 113 at his house.  Of course, I believe these reports, but the entire summer in San Francisco, Carmel Valley and Northern Michigan, I never experienced a temperature higher than 80. And even today, when the weather report said it hit 92 in San Francisco, there was a slight cool breeze when I went out walking at 3:00 o’clock. With shorts and a light summer shirt, it felt just right.

 

But I did take care to find the shade and that’s when I starting making up the new words to one of my favorite songs, On the Sunnyside of the Street. In the topsy-turvy world we’ve entered, where conspiracy theory insanity masks as plausible, 20,000 documented lies by the former “leader” of our nation were shrugged off as the new norm and 100+ degrees in places that such temperatures never (or rarely) had ever visited is simply the news of the day, we may have to re-make lots of lyrics to old songs. Here’s my contribution for the above jazz classic:

 

Leave your coat, but grab your hat,

And don’t forget the sun-screen,

Just direct your feet, 

To the shady side of the street.

 

Can’t you hear the splitter-splat,

Eggs frying on the sidewalk,

If you want to beat the heat,

Go to the shady side of the street.

 

I used to walk in the sun,

And it always was fun.

But those days are done,

This rover, crossed over.

 

If  you camp out with your tent,

Make sure you find a shade tree,

Life still can be sweet, 

On the shady side of the street.

 

Yeah?