Summer Heat

The summer weather on the mid-Atlantic portion of east coast is always hot and humid, with the exception last year's gorgeous temperatures, and summer is now fully upon us. For the second time in a month, our air conditioner is experiencing technical difficulties, and I am told that the replacement part for the condenser will be another five days in transit before it can possibly be put in place to cool us off.

I'm sure by now my second-grader knows very well how to spell the word "sweat". It apparently was 98 degrees Farenheit yesterday afternoon, feeling more like 101 ("they" said), but I've become so used to living with the heat that I can't say it bothered me as much as I would have expected.

My husband and I prefer natural air to recycled air anyway, and we are frequently the last in our neighborhood to turn on the AC in summer. For one thing, the condensers are loud, and living in close quarters to our neighbors as we do, it becomes a challenge to ignore the loud hum of the machines. It is interesting to see how dependent we humans become on air conditioning once we give in to the temptation of turning it on. We decide we cannot possibly survive without it. We're melting (like the witch in the Wizard of OZ?); we feel we're dying of the heat and humidity; we find ourselves unable to accomplish much of anything as our limbs are so heavy and we are so sleepy. We're just plain exhausted.

A number of things come to mind.

1) The heat really can make people ill, and the elderly and those with respiratory ailments must be very careful.

2) One does need to hydrate to make up for fluids lost to perspiration.

3) And I will confess that the extreme heat and humidity can make me terribly sluggish. I really do feel as if I could curl up and spend the day sleeping. I'm reminded of those desert animals that sleep in the hottest part of the day and come out once the temperature has dropped to a more manageable level.

Yesterday I was talking with my father-in-law about what people did in previous decades to achieve maximum summer heat avoidance [It is always fascinating to talk to people about those aspects of life B.M. T. (Before My Time) that never seem to make the history books and documentaries.). In dry hot climates, a method known as evaporative cooling (as opposed to refrigerative cooling, the method we call air conditioning] was used. I looked this up on Wikipedia, and, not surprisingly, this low-tech method has been used throughout history wherever the climate was hot and dry enough to put it to good use.

Unfortunately, where we live, the air already has enough water in it to sink the nearest battleship, so I guess we're stuck with the more expensive type of air cooling, refrigerative, which uses freon, (just like your refrigerator) and which actually removes moisture from the air. The cooled air is what allows us to put in a normal day's work without needing a three hour siesta and without feeling like we're moving in slow motion in the process.

The one beef I really have with this technology that I can't bring myself to live without, however, is that when I do spend my days in air conditioning—and sometimes very cold air conditioning—I feel as if I'm missing out on the season that, as a child, I used to long for throughout the other three seasons of the year. God forbid I catch a summer cold as a result of freezing indoors, and before I know it, it's time for school, football games, schedules, driving hither and yon, a new round of cold & flu season, and . . . you get the picture.

I like to get really sick of the heat so that Fall is a welcome relief. So, I guess this blog post is ultimately an affirmation of the heat of summer and an acceptance of the air condition-less state of my house. Others may express sympathy, but in a way it is a blessing. I may yet reach that point of summer heat saturation by the time Fall rolls around, and I will have the satisfaction of knowing that I can welcome Autumn's cool, having spent June, July, and August going all melty around the edges, as I am supposed to.