Where I live, near the Canadian border on the west coast, was late to
endure a heat wave this year. Unlike the rest of the country that
experienced drought conditions and excessive heat early in the summer,
those of us who live near the Canadian border (on either coast) have
enjoyed relatively cool temperatures for most of the summer – until now.
I
have a very unscientific theory that genetics plays a part in how your
body can cope with heat. I’m a born and bred New Englander now living
near the Canadian border on the opposite coast. My ancestors were all
ex-pat Brits who lived in New England for more generations than I can
count on two hands and two feet. I think our blood runs thick. When I
lived and worked in Texas I was never able to adjust to the heat and I
had a hunch that no matter how long I lived there my blood would never
thin enough to allow me to adjust. My ‘comfort zone’ is a northern
climate. Thick blooded people, I believe, suffer more from heat than do
more thin blooded southerners. Therein, however, is the rub. The
conundrum is that as I age, and arthritis progresses to dominate my
joints, I feel better when it’s warm. I feel soothed despite the ennui
that invariable makes the only place that looks inviting to me my ‘lazy
boy’ chair– possible covered with a towel that both absorbs perspiration
as well as adds its own unique texture to exposed body parts! Why don’t
they make Lazy Girl chairs I wonder? Indeed, heat stops me dead in my
tracks – but it soothes my bones. Go figure! At least I now have an
explanation for why my father “took leave of senses” (as I thought of it
at the time) when he moved from New England to Florida. Yes, it was a
light bulb moment that I wish I could share with him and watch him
gloat!
I digress. Our house is one of the few that I
know of that has a small window air conditioning unit. Not a pretty
appurtenance, but useful. Here in these genteel hinterlands people scoff
at the need for any cooling mechanism other than a fan or two. Our
house has a plethora of those as well. The little ‘gem’ of an ac unit
was a second hand gift from a friend who saw no need to take up valuable
storage space with something she said that she would never use.
Needless to say, she called last night to mention how utterly dreadful
the heat was. Sheepishly, I asked her if she wanted her ac machine back.
Thankfully, she said “no – there’s only one more day of this to
endure…”. Let’s hope she’s right. The thermometer on the deck displayed a
blazing 102F yesterday afternoon. We had reflective curtains drawn
tight against the permeating heat, the fans were blasting (the noise of
them makes my head hurt) and the ac unit was making like the little
engine that could and it did, in fact, manage to keep the temperature at
least 15-20
degrees cooler than the outside temperature. That’s a
feat for such a small little thing and it’s a big ‘win’ in my book. DH
suffers even more than I do in the heat and the noise of the machinery
does not seem to faze him at all whilst I need to bring out the earplugs
and Excedrin.
Then again, DH could manage to live in
Artic quite comfortably I think. He keeps the temperature in the house
so low with these various cooling devises that I sometimes have to have a
warm scarf wrapped securely around my neck in the evening! Better to be
able to remove something that be uncomfortable and have nothing more to
remove!
The one thing that I love about hot days is
how the cooler hours of early morning and late evening feel on my skin. I
love to step outside on the way to work and stand still for some
moments to enjoy the way the cooler air feels as it wraps it’s cool,
wispy, threads of air around my uncovered arms and feet. The coolness
collects in little eddies making me wish I could ‘freeze frame’ the
feeling and hold it for later in the day. The same holds true in the
evening when the heat of the day begins to dissipate, allowing stands of
‘cool’ to sooth the ragged, hot air. The plants react quickly to the
lowered temperatures perking up noticeably after enduring the wilting
heat of the day.
The prognosticators at NOAA promise a
return to more ‘normal’ seasonal temperatures for us over the weekend –
despite the threat of some significant thunderstorms on Saturday
evening. Our neighbors in the eastern part of the state are fighting
some very serious, very devastating, wild fires at the moment and my
prayers go out to those who have already suffered loss and to the fire
fighters who work so tirelessly to contain these monsters. I hope that
any thunder storms that cross our way will not cause any more heartache
by producing more fires to be combated.
There’s still
no rain in the forecast for us which, for our neck of the woods, is
quite unusual. Let’s all keep cool thoughts in mind and realize that
autumn is just the blink of an eye away – when we all, invariably, say
it’s too cold!
Can any of us doubt that Mother Nature is sending us a loud and clear messages that the climes they are a changing?
