It’s hotter than a fart. Steve L. while walking up a fan in Death Valley in, probably May of 1972, but applicable to the SF Bay Area in late June and early July 2024.

Sunday, a week and a day ago, was a way-above-average good day. For the first time in more than a week, the temperature was lower than 90 °F. It was in the mid-80s ° and delightful. We could go outside, and it wasn’t like walking into an oven. We don’t have air conditioning, so our strategy is to keep all the doors and windows closed during the day and then open them at night with our three fans on to blow cool air into the house. It works great unless there are three 100° days in a row, which there were.

“It’s so tough, I think, for anyone. But I think the important thing is just how you continue to get up in this, and you have got to continue to dig deep, even when you feel like you’re at the bottom of the barrel. I mean, there’s definitely been days between 2021 and here where I didn’t feel like I was good enough or whether I was going to get back to where I am today. But the important thing is I have great people around me who continue to support me and my team. Every time I turn up and see them putting in the effort, that really encouraged me to do the same thing. Lewis Hamilton to Jensen Button in the post-race interview.

Still, the best part of that Sunday came from good ol’ rainy England, where Sir Lewis Hamilton won the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, England. It was the first race Hamilton had a good enough car to win since 2021, and he drove a spectacular race. Well, spectacular is the wrong word, to be honest. Exciting and emotional might be better descriptors. Actually, exciting and emotional are good descriptions for most of the great Formula 1 races; they are rarely spectacular. Formula 1 is more of a chess match at very high speeds.

The race on Sunday started with a dry track, then a very light drizzle, dry again, a twenty-minute light rain, and a dry track to the finish. In other words, it was chaotic and a perfect track for Lewis. It was perfect because the temperature was lower, and this year’s Mercedes seemed to like cooler conditions. It was also perfect because the rainy conditions favored the driver over the car. Racing in off-and-on rainy conditions requires a lot of tire changing, which the Mercedes Strategist planned perfectly.

The race was emotional because Lewis Hamilton hadn’t won a race in 945 days – a big deal for someone who had won 103 races – and this was in front of his home crowd. Congratulations, Sir Lewis Hamilton.