I'm Melting

I’m Melting

I hate not being able to open my windows at night and air out the house. Of course sometimes I have to close them when skunks take an acceptance to something in my yard, and birds wake me right at dawn, not to mention the roar and clanking of garbage trucks, the neighbor’s motorcycle. So the air-conditioner noise mutes outside cacophonies and filters out most of the skunk stench and tropical humidity—okay, I get the posts I’ve been seeing on Facebook of people in love with their air conditioners.

Thunder storms and power surges right at the hottest point of the day when my house is groaning with the heat are cause for panic. How can we survive without air conditioning? To save power, I set our unit in the upper seventies. When shut off, the house rapidly goes to the eighties and a great deal more, I’m sure, if it stayed off for any length of time.

Outside Errands and Chores

My yard is dreadfully overgrown. Not the grass, obviously, but the bushes and weeds, which seem unfazed. They’ll wait for cooler weather. Shopping and visiting my mother have also suffered. It’s never cool out there and you can burn your tush sitting in a car after it has been sitting in a parking lot, even for an hour.

The news has been reporting the dangerous temperatures of such things sitting in the sun as playground equipment and car door handles. Hope everyone tests surfaces before trusting them, especially with the more delicate skin of children. We all know better than to leave children or pets in closed vehicles, yet the unthinkable still happens and little ones die. There are a number of good products on the market to prevent forgetting a child who has quietly fallen asleep in the back. I also like the idea of leaving something you need when you get out of the car—purse, cell phone—on the seat with the child as a reminder to look back there.

Brain Drain

The heat causes physical side effects—headaches and other body aches if hydration becomes an issue, heat rashes, and general malaise that saps the energy and may affect the ability to think or control your temper. I bet the fast-food restaurants are doing a booming business. No one wants to add heat to the house, cooking. Yes, I know one can use the microwave and slow cooker, but having to plan, prep and cook adds heat to the temper. That’s my story and no one better argue in my house.