Just an update

...'cause I feel bad about posting so infrequently. I'm afraid we'll lose our fans!

The weather is turning nice and HOT. Not quite brutal enough yet to warrant turning on the air conditioner (with the attendant jump in the electric bill), but getting there. It's also regrettably dry. When Meltem and I drive out to our family's summer place on the outskirts of Istanbul we pass by the city's main water reservoir, and hoo boy, it's a scary sight. Despite the heat, though, this week there appears to be some kind of football camp going on at the stadium across the street. (And again, when I say "football" I mean the REAL kind, not this girly-man soccer aberration.) Morning and afternoon the field fills up with young guys wearing helmets, running around to the orders of a couple of middle-aged men who are probably imported coaches. Hell, fine by me; anything to get a he-man sport recognized around here.

Speaking of he-men, or wanna-bes anyway, I don't know if it's the heat, but in the past week I've witnessed three fights. One we watched from the balcony of a restaurant downtown; some worthless jackass shoved a woman (his girlfriend?) across the hood of a cab, and was promptly given what-for by a nearby Galahad (not before the woman threw her high-heeled shoe at his head though!). Then, the other day, Meltem and I were running for a bus when the doors opened and WHAM, a couple of peasant-looking ruffians burst out the door, one chasing the other. The chasee tripped over me, so the chaser caught him; hope I didn't accidentally trip the wrong guy! Finally, I was coming home from somewhere yesterday and noticed that a crowd had gathered outside our local mini-mart. Right as I passed by the tension snapped as two guys lunged at each other. It's a regular Dodge City around here! (Weird thing: No one around here seems to know how to take a swing; they all go for the straightforward frontal choke. Maybe I've been watching too many kung fu movies, so my entertainment expectations are inappropriately elevated.)

And finally, the big drama around the house is an invasion of pesky ants, who discovered our secret cache of brown sugar. The forces of goodness and light (me) have been struggling valiantly to vanquish them, but they just keep comin'. O tempora! O mores!