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It’s no secret that the weather in Valencia is usually lovely, but it is not without surprises. Last week we had a day that was a scorcher, with a high of 42.2° C, or 108° F.

The strange thing was that the day before had been at least 20° cooler, as was the day after.* Neither was any consolation to us as we tried to sleep that night, applying wet washcloths (me) and using a piece of corrugated cardboard as a fan (el Guapo).

Still, there were two good things that came out of that blast furnace of a day. The first was a reminder of how important context is, and that you don’t appreciate the sweet without a taste of bitter. Without that day’s dizzying heat, I might not have given much thought to the lovely cool breezes that followed it.

The second thing was a quotable quote from ten-year-old Ninja. As evening came on and it got dimmer in the living room, I asked him to turn on the light. His response: “Light generates heat. Maybe you could find a bug with bio-luminescence?”

Not a land bug, but a sea bug, Tomopteriskils [photo Uwe Kils]

*My visiting brother-in-law, a hang glider pilot, helped me understand a bit about how such a thing might occur. He told me about thermal lows, as well as high pressure areas spinning clockwise and low pressure areas spinning counter-clockwise. My knowledge retention was not impressively high, but I made a note of the website with the cool maps, and I know where to go to learn more.