i'm melting.

i've seen children removed from the custody of their parents for lesser evidence of neglect!

this past week the korea meterological administration issued heat warnings for much of the country. we're into our second week of high heat and humidity, which, from what i'm told, is thanks to a north pacific anticyclone from the tropics. perhaps the worst of it is the absence of sane temps once the sun goes down. what is typically a very pleasant, breezy summer evening in seoul has been replaced by sticky tropical nights, when the daily low temps are still in the upper 20s (low 80s F). it's hard to make progress on the manplan front when bedded skin-on-skin contact is excessively soppy.

of course, this pales when compared to the oppressive daylight hours, as parts of the peninsula have seen temps in the high 30s (100˚ F). the real kicker is when the heat combines with humidity, which is called the heat index. lately we've seen heat indexes of 41. too bad the kma says heatstroke can occur among the physically active when the index is as low as 32.

this explains why a 22-year-old female college student collapsed and died on monday. she was participating in a 1,133 kilometer (704 mile) x-country trek from seoul's cheonggye plaza to tongyeong in south gyeongsang province and then back to seoul. the trek was cancelled yesterday. she's not the only one who's succumbed. nine others drowned over the past few days as they tried to cool off in local swimming pools, lakes and rivers.

and speaking of water, where's the shiz that's supposed to fall from the sky? it's jangma (monsoon) season, but i haven't seen nary a drop since the inaugural squall back on june 17. this could be the worst leg-viewing season in recent memory. plus, my patio planters are in shock.