Killer Horseflies

The heat hit different today—the kind of hot where you suddenly understand why lakes exist. I picked up Ana and Irina but they still weren’t ready, something about needing to shave, hitting Edeka for a new phone card, deciding between skirts and pants or whatever. The whole thing ate an hour while I’m melting in their living room playing with cats and staring at this massive flat-screen, just wondering what their electricity bill looks like.

Eniz had been out front waiting forever. We almost grabbed Ali but he’d already peeled off with his girlfriends to some other pool. Eniz needed to stop at Edeka for sunflower oil—and I mean actual cooking oil, not sunscreen. He swears it tans better. Maybe it does, maybe he’s just breading himself like a chicken and too stubborn to admit it. The smell later was genuinely foul.

Ettringer Baggerweiher finally. Spent half an hour hunting for a real spot, gave up, parked with everyone else. Straight into the water. The whole swim was a fight—slimy algae, vicious horseflies with a vendetta, tree debris floating everywhere. Cold ice after, good people, Eniz absolutely reeking of sunflower oil. That was it.