It was uncomfortable already at dawn and it has been this way all day. The early evening drips and sighs, remembering broken promises of cool relief. Streetlights flicker to life and then extinguish by the block. The whir of unheard air conditioners is revealed by the sudden absence thereof. The city bends to its powerless knees.
Traffic snarls around the dead eyes of electric signals.
My car is imprisoned behind a lifeless gate in a secure parking structure. I begin to walk the seventeen blocks home. By the time I get there, the power might be restored and I can ride to the twelfth floor. If I could drive there immediately, I would have to take the stairs. Either way, I'm hot and sticky and wet.