It’s Not Just the Heat…

Most of us are in the US and this week are talking about what we hate about the heat. It is the end of July and that is usually when the worst hits.(Iris is in Australia, so if you check in on Monday’s post, you’ll hear what she hates about the cold!)

For those of you who think it is just a saying, believe me when it is not just the heat, it is the humidity. I grew up on the east coast of the United States near the capital and in the city our suburbs, it is dreadfully uncomfortable in the Summer in the City. John Sebastian wrote that song about Washington, D.C.; he knew of what he spoke! When he speaks of it being gritty, it is. Where I grew up in the suburbs, it was hot, but until more buildings went up, more trees came down and more vehicles were on the road, it was tolerable most of the time. When the air became polluted and there was more heat and radiation from pavement and buildings, it became worse and worse.

While I was still living there, friends of my aunt’s had retired to the Phoenix, Arizona area and were trying to persuade her to do the same. My sister was looking to relocate and since I was part of her husband business,( and attached deeply to my nieces), I was willing to move with them. So I flew out with my aunt to check Arizona out. I have to say it has many charms, but the temperatures reached 92F, I said no-thank-you, (even though it was still reasonable in the shade), as it was February, for Heaven’s sake.I knew we’d never be comfortable there in the Summer.

We moved out to Idaho and then I moved to the Denver ,Colorado area, and although the air pollution can be bad in that city as well, the humidity is low most of the time, and a little shade or a little breeze helps incredibly. I never used my air conditioner since we had a lovely East-West exposure in our narrow townhouse. It was hot upstairs during the day, but the flow-through breeze at night kept us all very cool and comfortable. It was always ‘good sleeping weather’.

I did not even have A/C in my car out there! I’d open the windows and unless I was stuck in traffic on the hottest day, I’d be fine. One particularly hot day I had to tent it to keep the direct sun off of it, but I made it across town with a tiered graduation cake that never melted or ran.

But that was not here. My sons were 8 ½ and 10 when we moved to the middle of Kentucky .I said to my husband, “How can we ever prepare them for humidity?” He rightfully answered, “We can’t!” And we were ill-prepared to go back to it ourselves.
Without dwelling on health issues again I have to say that I know that I simply would not survive if I did not have air conditioning in my car here and now: Statement of Fact.

I never could take the sun, I always burned and blistered; later on, it made me ill. Now, I know why; it’s illness as well. So when I garden, it’s in the evening or on cloudy days.
Give me a balmy, partly cloudy day with low humidity and a high between 65-82F and I am just great…but that does not happen very often here. We are usually short on Spring and Fall-type weather and it goes from too hot to too cold all too fast.

So, here I am with a couple of cool-ish days in the midst of the hottest part of the year. My feet have always tended to get hot and they have been killing me, even in sandals. Last week it felt like opening an oven when I opened a door and the gas mileage in my car is terrible since it takes more to run the A/C…and then I have to stand in the heat to pump the gas back in; it’s a trade-off.

I know that I will be complaining of the cold and vowing to love the heat again soon, as I did when it was cold last season, but now, yeah, I really hate really hot, humid weather. I can’t find shade with a breeze, crank up the A/C and hand me a cold drink with plenty of ice,or do it anyway!

And in case it’s humid in Hell, I am striving to be a very good girl.